Another Chance
by Tana Satou
Summary: Lucy's world is turned upside down from a single, yet powerful lie made by Lisanna, who envies her. In a heartbroken state from the betrayal of even her closest friends, she kills herself. Given another chance at life by a somewhat scatterbrained goddess, Lucy learns all magic that the goddess knows. Yet in her new life more problems arise; more severe than she could have imagined.
1. Distortion: Another Chance

** UPDATE (11/24/16)**

I am so ashamed of myself for writing this fanfic. Don't read ahead of Chapter 1, because it only gets worse from there. Plot inconsistencies, plot points that are brought up but are thrown away, clichés (as if the entire premise of this wasn't a cliché), and yeah. I claimed Sakura wasn't a Mary Sue...by giving her an angsty backtory. What the hell 2014 Tana? Totally need to incorporate some other OCs out of the story, need to fix inconsistencies, need to rid of the padding, need to detail, need to elaborate on plot points, use less clichés... Yeah, 2016 Tana is really nitpicky.

Yeah, I recommend that you don't even read the first chapter. Even with the edits, it's still so poorly thought out. I need a time machine to go back to the 2014 and 2015 Tanas and bitch smack them.

**Update (11/25/16)**

I'm totally removing three OCs that appear near the end of the current chapters or at the very least changing their names. Probably the latter, but what to...? I hope I am able to make it through my cringe...

Also, I have been working on this chapter a little bit, but not so much so that it would cause plot holes―as if there weren't already plot holes. Well, for this chapter alone. I might write an update where I talk about what I need to fix...or perhaps just put it on my profile. I have to read through cringe now... For now, I'll briefly go through the Chapters and do a simple revision. I'll remove stuff I really don't like, and I'll just change stuff that I don't like or cause plot holes. Sounds more complicated than it actually is, but it will be very simple.

This is a rewritten rewritten chapter...?

Also, if you are an old fan of this fanfic, you may realize that the chapters that are rewritten two times may have plot changes and/or dialogue changes. Oh, and of course, changes in my detail!

And yes, when I don't give the point-of-view, you should, I dunno, use context clues.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Never in my life would I write "the power of friendship". Hey, I'm just saying.

* * *

The town of Magnolia, located in the kingdom of Fiore. It is blessed with brooks of clear, unpolluted water flowing throughout. Birds chirp brightly in the mornings of spring as sun shines brightly upon the buildings and streets. However, near one of the small streams is a certain apartment, and in that, a certain room.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

A blonde rolled over in her bed and curled one of her hands into a fist of annoyance. She then proceeded to hit the sleep button on her alarm clock without even looking. She sat up, yawning tiredly. Slowly but gradually, her somewhat blurry vision cleared up and her mind was able to process the numbers on her clock. _10:30, _it read. "Crap! How could I let myself sleep in like this?!" Lucy yelled.

She dressed herself quickly. Lucy ran into her kitchen and with haste, she threw a piece of bread in the toaster. Instead of wasting more time, she decided to just try to eat it when she was running to her guild like she saw many people―especially children―do. When she was ready to head for the guild, she heard an abrupt knock on her door.

"Yes?" Lucy opened the door without haste and saw Lisanna standing there.

"Oh, hello Lisanna, what do you need?" Lucy asked.

"Leave the guild," Lisanna said in deadpan tone, her face menacingly serious.

"Wh―Why would I do that?"

Lisanna smacked Lucy and then proceeded to kick her in her stomach. "You will not take away my Natsu," she spat.

"What do you mean? Take away Natsu?" Lucy unfortunately still had no idea what was happening.

"You know what I mean!" Lisanna yelled. She shoved Lucy onto the floor and kicked her back multiple times.

"No, I don't know wh―what you...mean..." Lucy said weakly as she felt like she was on the brink of unconsciousness.

Lisanna held up a leather pouch and opened it. Inside was a knife. The knife wasn't just one someone could simply find in the knife block in their kitchen, but rather, a magic one with strange runes on its short blade. Lisanna took it into one of her hands and stabbed Lucy's left arm. Lisanna twisted it a few times before pulling it back. The runes on the knife glowed orange and Lucy's left arm went up into weak flames. All Lucy could do in her sudden weakness was cry out faintly.

Lisanna proceeded to cut a circle around Lucy's Fairy Tail insignia with the knife, but flames didn't appear. "Heh," she spat. "I'll show you a little mercy by not making your hand burn up." Lisanna kicked Lucy once more and Lucy finally passed out. By now, the flames on Lucy's arms had already extinguished. The fire only left a few scars, however.

"Leave."

* * *

"Lucy! Lucy! Wake up!" I woke up to someone yelling my name, I slowly opened my eyes and saw a blob of pink hair and a mass of bright blue hovering over me.

"Natsu?" I asked nauseously. Immediately, whoever was there asked, "Lucy, what happened? You didn't even come to the guild yesterday." By this time, I could confirm that it was Natsu and Happy, even though the room was spinning in my eyes. I hesitated when thinking of an answer, do I tell the truth, or do I simply lie? But either way, I quickly made a decision. The guild members would never believe me if I told them Lisanna harmed me.

"Well a robber came into my room with a knife, while I was fighting him, he managed to stab me a few times. I think I fainted though since I bled so much," I lied.

"Are you sure? Sounds a little fishy if you ask me."

"It is." With that, Natsu looked as if he was about to jump from my window and leave. And he almost did, before Happy interrupted him. "Hey, don't we need to tend her wounds?" the Exceed asked, flying around as he frantically looked for a first-aid kit.

"Oh yeah! I forgot!" Natsu said. What an idiot, he can't even remember that his friend is wounded? Happy eventually appeared in my sight again, throwing a kit with a red cross on its cover on the ground. Happy opened it and dug through the supplies hastily, throwing things all over until he finally found a gauze strip. He handed it to Natsu. Slowly, but somehow messily, Natsu wrapped the cloth around my shoulder and then my hand.

"Lucy," Happy intervened. "Why would a robber all of a sudden try to draw a circle on your hand with a knife? He was trying to _fight _you, right?"

Once Natsu finished wrapping the gauze strip, we went to the guild, Natsu supporting me by letting my arm hang over his shoulder.

* * *

We finally arrived at the guild. Lucy almost fell a few times, but Happy said to go easy on her because she seemed to feel really dizzy. Sighing, I kicked open the guild doors, careful not to let Lucy fall. "We're here!" I yelled to the entire guild, though nobody really seemed to react. Instead, everybody was hovered around Lisanna, who was crying within the crowd of people surrounding her.

"That bitch, she deserved it. When I see her again, I'll make sure she suffers," I heard Erza say in a mix of a mocking and a serious tone.

"Who deserved what, Erza? Who's going to suffer?" I asked in a mix of fear and worry. Despite saying "she", I had this strange feeling like it was me she was referring to. Or maybe I was just being paranoid, since after all, I'm pretty sure Erza said "she". And I actually felt sorry for whoever had incurred the wrath of Erza. To do that is like asking for a death sentence.

Someone must have really insulted her strawberry cake today.

As I was zoning out, I suddenly heard Erza reply, "Lucy. She attacked Lisanna."

Lucy was quick to defend herself. "What? Lisanna attacked me! What nonsense is this?!" Not thinking much about the situation, I stared at her with a look of disgust. I almost couldn't believe what I had just heard.

"No, you came to my home and beat me up," Lisanna said, tears streaming from her eyes. Levy stomped up to Lucy angrily.

"You bitch. You were so jealous of poor Lisanna and thought that violence was the way to solve it. I can't believe you, I expected better from somebody like you," she spat, smacking Lucy.

"Levy..." Lucy said, covering the red mark that was left behind on her cheek with her hand. Suddenly, she put on a much more stubborn expression. "No... I expected better from you," she retorted. "For somebody who's pretty much been my friend ever since I joined, you would seriously take someone that you told me you barely had a connection with, over me? Or are you just believing her story because everyone else does?"

Levy's eyes widened. "Shut up!" she yelled.

Following this, Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armour. Swords formed in the air behind her, pointed at Lucy. As Lucy was too shocked to react, Erza took the time to launch them at Lucy, all at once. Lucy tried to dodge them, sidestepping the best she could, but half of them hit her. From head to toe, she was already covered in bruises and blood.

Levy began to Solid Script fire at Lucy faster than I had ever seen her use her magic before. Alzack and Bisca shot Lucy in the legs and arms, immobilizing her. She collapsed on the ground, though I could hear no 'Thud' with all of the commotion going on. Stripper placed his palms on the ground and ice creeped up to Lucy. It formed chains around her wrists and ankles.

Gajeel, Wendy, Juvia, and all the Exceeds only stared at the scene before them wide-eyed. I wondered why they weren't reacting. Especially Happy. Him, Lisanna, and I used to play together all the time. Why couldn't he remember and help defend her from anyone trying to kill her?

Finally, everyone attacked her. And I was the one to land the final blow.

"You bitch!" I yelled.

* * *

I could tell Lisanna was crying fake tears, those "tears" landed on her legs which looked like they had cuts and bruises on them, the "cuts" smeared. My eyes widened. _'Make-up,'_ I thought.

"You idiots!" I yelled, "Haven't you heard of make-up!?"

Everyone was too busy attacking me to even hear me. Even if they could, they wouldn't listen.

Eventually, everybody attacked me, all at once. I didn't see Natsu during that, though. I was beginning to think that he actually listened, but that was a mistake. He attacked me on his own.

Somehow, I had still survived all the beating I had taken. Like a punching bag and the world's most competetive boxer. The restrictions Gray put on me had disappeared. Weakly, I tried to stand. And surprisingly, I could, even though it hurt. I slowly walked over to a sword that was stuck in the guild floors. My hand grasped its hilt, and I pulled it out.

"Don't try to fight back! You were supposed to die anyway!" I heard someone yell.

As soon as I stabbed myself, the guild fell silent. The blade tore through my skin and all I could see was darkness. _'I have no regrets. If my the people that I called family don't want me to live, I won't,'_ I thought before I felt myself falling. Falling into an endless pit. Falling into the underworld where the souls of the dead lingered.

* * *

"Natsu felt guilty, they just killed someone. A member of the guild, nonetheless. Lucy, nonetheless. He felt like someone just tore him apart.

_'I don't know why but, I think I just realized that...'_ Natsu thought, but he instantly shook the thought out of his mind. He immediately felt shame and regret over what they had just done. Natsu fell to his knees.

"What have we... What have I done?" Everyone's chest was heaving, it seemed that they put a lot of unnecessary power into their attacks. Natsu didn't know if anyone but him felt sorry.

* * *

Lucy opened her eyes to find an empty and dark place. "Lucy, my dear," she heard a strange, feminine voice say from nowhere. It echoed in the void in which she floated in. Lucy had her suspicions, as the voice sounded like her mother's.

Suddenly, a woman with blonde hair wearing a formal, pink dress appeared and hovered above Lucy. "You did not deserve such a horrible and cruel death. You will be given another chance at life thanks to the goddess," her mother stated, sounding oddly entranced.

"I will show you your new body." Lucy heard another voice; a mature and feminine one. But what appeared before her merely looked like an adult hardly in her early twenties. She had long, dark blue hair flowing down her back and brown eyes. She wore a somewhat plain robe, the upper-half of it white with and the lower a primitive crimson. The ends of the sleeves gradually drooped. Lucy's eyes widened at the sight.

"You are a goddess? I've never even heard tales of gods that walked our land." she asked.

"We are only humans from another world. Gods are merely what we call ourselves due to how superior we are deemed compare to your kind," the woman replied. "Before we continue, my name is Sakura." A girl who looked like Lucy, but slightly taller and with blue eyes, appeared in front of Lucy. "This is the new body I spoke of."

The girl that resembled Lucy spoke with empty eyes and an emotionless face, "I am you and not you. My body is not the same as your old one, but I will share the same soul with you."

Looking to the vessel, Sakura spoke once more. "Lucy, this body will be much more powerful, as your mother Layla had wished me to bestow upon you more magic. Along with a much greater magic vessel, you have the potential to learn all types of magic―at least, the magic that I know. For you to know any other magic that I do not know, other gods must grant you not only the ability, but the knowledge."

* * *

Makarov went back to the guild after a very painful and long meeting with the masters of the other guilds. When he walked through the guild's doors, he smelt the very obvious stench of death.

"Brats! Why does it reek of death in here!?" Makarov yelled.

"Lucy killed herself," someone replied, sounding like they didn't care.

"WAIT, WHAT!?" Makarov screamed in surprise. He was already tired from all the talking his poor body and mind had to endure, and now the news of a guild member's death just suddenly smacked him in the face.

"Why do you care so much about her? She hurt Lisanna, she deserved it," someone else said.

"How do you know Lucy hurt Lisanna!?" Makarov demanded to know.

"Lisanna told us," Gray simply said, not realizing such a point was weak.

"If she did hurt Lisanna, how much did she hurt her?"

"A little, I guess."

"WHAT!?"

"She did not deserve death over, what? a few bruises!? Why do I sense a lie!? Oh, that's because it's obvious!" Makarov lost control and screamed.

"Why would my sister lie?" MiraJane asked, though Makarov quickly countered.

"Anyone can easily lie! And I can't believe you brats are so gullible!" Makarov yelled. Makarov stormed into his office and shut then locked his door. Makarov was known to never lock his door.

Anyone could tell that shit just got real.


	2. Reunited

This is a "truly-rewritten" chapter.

Rewrite Author Note Update: Since I liked to switch around perspectives in my old days of Fanfiction, I...I kind took out some perspective swaps. Seriously, every hundred words, I seemed to swap point of view.

* * *

As I was grumbling to myself, there was a sudden knock on my door. "Go away, I don't want to see any of you!" I yelled, my voice gruff from pure rage and annoyance.

"Master! please open up your door!" I heard a familiar voice insist. Despite how short I was at my old age, I was able to spin my swivel chair around. I guided it to my door and stood on it. I closed an eye and looked through the glass peephole in the door to find Erza standing there. "What do you want Erza!? I don't want to talk to you!"

"Lisanna didn't lie, we have proof!" Erza claimed.

"And what would that be?!" I questioned, my eyebrow raising but not losing my clearly enraged demeanor. "Even after your master has said something about Lisanna lying, you are still not convinced?!"

"She has cuts and bruises. She even has a scar on her cheek," the redhead replied.

Turning away from the door, I took a moment to stare at nothing. After grumbling a few more words to myself, I shouted loud enough so the floor below could hear. "Lisanna!" I called "In my office!" There was a long pause, until I heard light footsteps approaching my office.

The footsteps halted. "Yes, Master?" she asked. I unlocked the door and opened it. Lisanna walked in seemingly calmly, but I could tell her breathing was unsteady.

"Now, how do you have proof that Lucy hurt you?"

Lisanna pointed at a "scar" on her throat. She then had me take a look at a reddish wound on her left arm. She had bruises all over. Despite how convincing it looked, I smelt make-up. _'What the hell, I'm not a dragon slayer! How can I smell make-up so well when I'm not a dragon slayer?' _I thought. But then it dawned upon me. _'Oh! So she's using so much of it, that she's basicallly a cake covered in frosting!'_

My eyes wandered off towards Erza who was still standing outside of my office. "Do you smell anything weird? or at least strong?" I asked.

"Yeah, kind of. But I don't know what it is," Erza replied, not knowing what I was getting at. I facepalmed, I spun my chair around to my desk and opened the drawer underneath it. I took out a box, covered in a clear case, and threw it to Erza. Make-up. (Hey, don't judge me. I didn't even know why I had it!)

Erza studied the box a little. "Doesn't that seem to be creating this "weird smell" a little?" I asked. Erza's eyes widened.

"Yeah, but why would someone have make-up? I don't use it, MiraJane doesn't use it. None of the girls use it!" she said, confused.

"That's what Lisanna is using," I simply replied.

Erza looked at her, "Lisanna why do you have make-up? I don't see any on you. What's the point of wearing it if we can't see it?" she questioned. I hopped out of my chair. "Please wait here."

I walked down the hallway until I approached the case of stairs leading to the lower floor. I stomped as I walked down them. The members of the guild looked at me. They had worried faces, confused faces, everything. I apporached Juvia.

"Juvia, will you please follow me to my office?" I asked normally. Her and a few others did not take part in attacking Lucy, so I held no grudge against them. Juvia bowed in respect.

"Yes, Master."

We walked back up to my office, where Erza and Lisanna still wait for me. I spoke, "Erza, please watch." Erza nodded as she focused on her surroundings.

"Juvia, this may sound like an odd request, but please, splash Lisanna with water."

The look on Juvia's face told me that it was indeed, a weird thing for someone like me to ask. Closing her eyes, she threw her hand out in front of her, her palm facing Lisanna. "I'm sorry!" Juvia said sheepishly as a large stream of water shot out from her hands, rushing towards Lisanna.

It immediately drenched her. All her "injuries" disappeared as if they were just illusions.

"My make-up!" Lisanna yelled. She quickly covered her mouth, realizing that she just gave herself away.

Noticing this immediately, Erza yelled, "You mean that was make-up?!"

"Yes," I replied calmly. Lisanna ran out, attempting to hopefully escape the consequences, but I extended my arm and grabbed her in my fist before she could do so.

"You are no longer a part of Fairy Tail," I said in a serious but calm tone. I removed the Fairy Tail insignia from her shoulder, the mark slowly disappearing into a golden light.

* * *

Wendy, Juvia, Gajeel and the Exceeds had a look of horror on their faces. "Lucy-san didn't deserve death! She didn't do anything!" Wendy shouted.

Charla folded her arms. "Normally I'd just agree with Wendy because she's Wendy, but this time, I agree with her out of my mere common sense," she stated with a stubborn look on her face.

"Juvia thinks Lisanna was lying!" Juvia yelled.

"Bunny girl's too innocent to hurt one of us," Gajeel said.

"Y-You guys are idiots..." Happy said, tears rolling down his cheeks. "How could you do that?!" Happy used his Aera and flew towards the guild doors. He pushed one of them open and rushed outside.

Pantherlily spoke, though keeping a more neutral standpoint, "Even if Lucy did hurt one of the guild members, she did not have to suffer death. If it was somebody else, say Gajeel, he'd just be kicked out of the guild." Fairy Tail was frozen in silence after they spoke. Nobody knew what to say.

* * *

I opened my eyes to find myself in the forest I looked at my keys—which Sakura probably transfered from my old body. I found Plue's key first. I looked at the silver, and using it as a mirror, I saw that my eyes were indeed blue.

"So it wasn't a dream after all..." I whispered to myself. With nothing better to do at the time, I called Plue from the Spirit World.

"Pun pun," Plue said. He turned to look at me and quickly put on a look of fear, somehow noticing the small difference.

"It's okay, it's me, Lucy. I'll tell you what's going on," I told him.

Plue walked towards me. "I kind of killed myself at the guild and I got another body," I explained as I pat his head. Plue nodded, as if believing me. I walked into a nearby town. Luckily nobody recognised me as the news of my death must have not spread far outside Fairy Tail. I ran to a nearby tailor shop just in case one person did though. I bought a hooded black cloak and immediately put it on before I exited. I then spoke to Plue.

"Plue, I'll need you to stay in the spirit world when we're in public. If people see you after news spreads that I died, people will have their suspicions."

Plue nodded understandingly. He soon disappeared and returned to the spirit world.

I eventually was able to figure out where I was. The town I was in was actually a little close to Magnolia. Tiredly, I looked around for apartments. I found one that I really liked. It was 120,000 Jewel a month. so I was hesitant, but I remembered that I could learn all types of magic in this new body and took it. Arc of Embodiment could probably solve half of my problems...if I even learned it by the time I first payed rent.

I needed a fake identity, of course. I finally came up with one after half an hour, hey, I don't have much of an imagination. I took the name 'Minami Yamauchi' as soon as my head started to hurt. After I did all the stuff I needed to do, which wasn't much, it was nighttime. I quickly threw myself onto the bed, too tired to even change into my night clothes. As soon as I closed my eyes, I fell asleep.

* * *

"Lucy," I heard a voice say, I opened my eyes and saw Sakura standing there, there was darkness surrounding us. "Sakura?" I asked looking up at her.

"Lucy, you want to get stronger, am I right?" Sakura asked, though it was probably rhetorical.

"Yeah, and?" I didn't catch what she was getting at.

"From now on we'll be training i-" I quickly cut Sakura off.

"But this is a dream, isn't it?"

"We'll be training when you have a dream, let me finish," Sakura said.

"When I have nightmares?"

"If you have nightmares, training gets canceled."

The darkness around us changed into Hargeon Town, though it was completely devoid of people. We were in an open area, the ground paved with cobblestone. Buildings surrounded us, as we were probably in the town square. A fountain stood in the middle of all of it. The water in it was still clear when I first saw it, revealing the coins dropped into it. "Why Hargeon Town?" Sakura suddenly asked.

"What do you mean? I thought you changed it into Hargeon Town," I said.

"Well, it changed to wherever you were thinking of," she stated. "So, why were you thinking of Hargeon Town?"

"Well…"

"You were probably thinking about Natsu, this is where you first met him. Correct?" Ugh, Sakura's a mind-reader, but why was I thinking of Natsu? An image of him popped up in my mind. _'Why am I thinking of him? He's the one that tried kill me because he believed that lying bitch,'_ I thought.

"Lucy! God damn it, I spent five minutes trying to get you to listen!" Quickly, I snapped out of my thoughts and saw Sakura waving her hand in front of my face with an annoyed look.

"Says the swearing goddess," I mocked. Sakura facepalmed. I tried to switch back to the topic. "So what were you saying?"

"Lucy, you will first be learning all the normal types magic. You will then learn dragon slaying magic and eventually god slaying magic," Sakura explained.

"So how long will all of it take?" I was hoping it wouldn't take too long.

"To learn all of it, it would take about a year," Sakura replied.

"And exactly how much time will the normal magic take? What about the dragon slaying magic? The god slaying magic? And why will it only take a year?" I asked all at once without letting Sakura answer all of them.

"Jeez, you sure ask a lot of questions. The normal magic will take about two months. The dragon slaying magic, four and the god slaying magic will take six. If you train hard enough, learning all magic won't take very long," Sakura said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to fill you in on something," I looked at Sakura with curiosity. "To be honest, I can't teach you all magic. There is some lost magic that my fellow gods and goddesses know, but I don't even know those. I mean, I could pull a few gods but, I don't want to do that."

I wasn't even disappointed. "Well by that logic, the same gods and goddesses don't know your magic. Which makes something like this more unique, right?"

Sakura smiled as she realized that. "I suppose so."

From there, I started my training on the more basic magic. Two months slowly passed and I tried my best not to receive a bad dream by thinking of my old guild. It worked...for the most part. Occasionally I just had this weird nightmare that had nothing to do with the guild, but I guess it was a break from how harsh and strict Sakura was. I wasn't very good at caster magic because I started out as a holder.

* * *

_"Sakura, this is weird. I didn't have a problem when that Kain guy used it." I said controlling a training dummy with one of those 'Mr. Cursey' dolls. It felt like I was a child playing with a toy, but this was much more awkward because I wasn't a child._

_"Got a problem?" Sakura asked. "This is what you wanted after all."_

_"Do I have to learn every type of magic? Can't I just leave some out? It'll shorten my training too," I asked._

_"Nope! I'm making you do all of this just in case something happens!" Sakura replied, a grin on her face for some reason._

_"Sakura. This. Is. Weird." I said, eating a really big piece of meat._

_"It's absorption magic, what did you think?" Sakura said. "Won't I get fat?" I asked._

_"Er… After this, you must run twenty laps around the track!" Sakura replied. __What the hell!? Five miles!? Run!? What is she trying to do to me!? Is she like an excercise sadist or something?_

_"Listen, do you want to become fat?" Sakura asked. Damn it, I forgot that she was a mind reader._

_"Sakura! This is weird!" I whined as I performed a dance I've never seen before. If Sakura wasn't here, I'd be fine, but it was just the fact that I was dancing in front of someone that embarassed me._

_"Actually, it is. Dancer magic might be weird but, some people have it and have to do this. You don't have to use it but, you never know what will happen," Sakura replied, a smirk visible on her face._

_"Ugh…" I groaned, still dancing. This is so damn weird!_

_"Sakura, this is weird. Can't I just throw eggs instead of spitting them?" I complained._

_"It would be great if you could. But, if you try spitting the eggs into your hands, it'll break," Sakura replied. Too late. I spit an egg into my hand and it broke, good thing my hand didn't start to bleed. Sakura facepalmed._

_I spoke before spitting out another one towards the dummy I was aiming at. "Do you have an egg fetish or something?"_

_"No! Do you think I throw dozens of eggs everytime I cook?!" she yelled. "Not like I even cook though..." she then whispered to herself, even though I could hear it._

_"Sakura, what the hell is this!?" I asked._

_"I don't know, muscle speaking magic, I guess. I don't know. I wasn't the god involved in creating magic," the swearing goddess replied. I guess that's my new nickname for her. I'm not so sure she'll approve, though._

* * *

_'This is the day where we'll visit Lucy's grave...for the first time," _Natsu thought.

"Natsu!" Happy said, interrupting his thoughts. "Can you hear me? I said let's go to her grave."

The whole guild went to Lucy's grave to mourn. After Makarov had scolded them harshly, everyone immediately realised their mistakes. One by one, guild members stepped up and said words of apology. Tears showered down from grey clouds as everyone's thoughts were focused on Lucy and only Lucy. The process was slow, but eventually everyone returned to the guild.

Natsu thought he heard Lucy's voice saying as he turned his back to her gave. _"I'm still alive, Natsu."_

_'She can't be,'_ Natsu thought as he shook the possibility out of his mind.

* * *

"Yes!" Lucy said, "I finally learned all the normal magic!" she cheered.

Lucy decided to go get herself something as a reward. When she was walking on the streets, she saw a blob of pink hair. Natsu suddenly picked up Lucy's scent, "Happy. I think I smell Lucy," Natsu said.

"No way. She's dead, remember? How could she be dead and come back? We buried her body, so there's no way. You must be imagining things..." Happy replied.

_'They actually buried my old body?' _Lucy asked to herself.

"Well I think it's her."

Natsu said, he walked towards Lucy who was still in her cloask. "Shit," Lucy whispered to herself, she quickly ran back to her apartment.

_'I was almost caught. Good thing I got away,' _Lucy thought as she threw herself onto her bed. She heard her window open once she closed her eyes.

"Natsu, you shouldn't break into someone's apartment, this isn't Lucy," Happy said, flying around Natsu. "You could earn a bad reputation, you could be remembered as a stalker, you could...!"

"Who exactly are you?" Lucy asked, she obviously knew who he was, but acted as if she didn't. "What are you doing breaking into people's homes?"

"Yep, I told you it wasn't her," Happy said. Natsu turned his back to Lucy, right before he did however, he saw a strand of golden hair.

* * *

The day quickly turned into night, Lucy went to bed and fell asleep. But this time, she didn't see the goddess. She saw Natsu standing there, talking to Happy.

_"Lucy's a real bitch. She doesn't deserve to live," Lucy could hear Natsu say. "Aye!" Happy agreed._

_"I don't know why she was born. God probably sent her to annoy us," Natsu added._

_"Natsu…" said Lucy, wearily._

_The dream Natsu caught sight of her and beat her up. Soon, everyone from the guild appeared and did the same, she didn't kill herself this time. Natsu had killed her, instead._

Lucy woke up, "Thank god that was a dream. And a short one too."

She was able to quickly fall back asleep again. Unfortunately, Lucy had the same nightmare once again. After that everything went back to normal.

* * *

_'Finally! After all that hard work I finally mastered every type of dragon slaying magic!' _Lucy thought.

Lucy went outside and saw her former friends, Wendy, Gajeel, Juvia, Levy, and the Exceeds talking near a shop.

"I still can't get over the fact love rival died," Lucy heard Juvia say, they continued talking about her death and that they still haven't gotten over it. Lucy walked over to them.

"Hello, may we help you?" Wendy politely asked. Wendy smelled the air. _'Lucy-san?' _she thought.

Lucy took off her hood. "B-Bunny girl?" Gajeel asked. Carla looked into Lucy's eyes.

"If you are Lucy, why do you have blue eyes and how are you alive?" she asked suspiciously.

"When I died, I was given another chance and got a new body. And I also met Sakura," Lucy replied.

"The goddess worshipped in almost every religion?" Pantherlily asked.

Lucy nodded her head, "She taught me almost all magic, but I still need to learn god slaying magic." Everyone's jaw dropped to the ground as they thought about actually meeting a god, even if it was just a dream.

"Oi! Fight me, Bunny girl!" Gajeel said.

"Gajeel, you don't just ask someone to fight when they literally come back from the dead," Juvia scolded.

"Don't worry, I'm much more powerful than I was back then," Lucy said. Everyone, except Lucy and Gajeel, had tears of joy streaming down their cheeks.

Levy bowed in respect. "I'm sorry Lucy! I started the whole thing with attacking you! I'm so sorry!" she apologized. Lucy simply smiled.

"You didn't start it, Levy. Lisanna was the start of all of it. I forgive you, as you are clearly sincere."

* * *

**UPDATE: This is a rewritten chapter. Wheeeeeeeeee.**

**And yes, HowToBasic reference with the egg fetish thing.**


	3. Unmasked

**I had to look at the Fairy Tail Wikia for the attack names. I suck, I don't even know the name of the attacks. Actually, I've gone through a bunch of mistranslations, so I don't know. I'll list them. Also, random name generator.**

**Jellal-Gerard, Mystogan-Mistgun, Laxus-Luxus, Arc-Ark, etc... But I guess Gerard and Ark are kind of correct. Because the way you'd say Jellal's Japanese name would be somethink like Jerarudo, and ark would be aruku. So yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, duh.**

* * *

"Lu-chan, are you sure you are can win against Gajeel?" Juvia asked.

"Pretty sure," replied Lucy.

"Don't be so sure, bunny girl," Gajeel said, cracking his knuckles.

They all went to an open field so they wouldn't destroy everything.

"You can have the first move," Lucy yelled.

"Actually, you can. I want to see how strong you've become," Gajeel said.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" Lucy shouted, a blast of air came out of her mouth, aimed for Gajeel.

"Eh...? That's my attack," said a confused Wendy.

Gajeel quickly dodged, "Iron Dragon's Club!" Gajeel countered.

"Iron Dragon's Roar!" Lucy said.

"What the hell?" Gajeel whispered to himself.

Lucy's attack broke through and hit Gajeel, "Just what are you, bunny girl?" Gajeel asked.

"Wait, what?" Wendy asked. Everyone, except Lucy, had dumb looks on their faces.

"Surprised? I told you I trained with Sakura," Lucy said.

"PUT AN HONOURIFIC ON HER NAME! SHE DID CREATE US!" Wendy yelled.

"Calm down, Wendy. I think that's a bit unnecessary," Carla said.

"Alright, stop," a voice said, Lucy looked at the person who said it.

"Sakura? Why are you here?" Lucy asked.

Everyone else's jaw dropped down to the ground. Gajeel got on his knees.

"Oh please don't punish us, please take pity upon us," Gajeel said in a slightly frightened voice.

"You took that too seriously," Sakura said.

"Who are you?" another voice asked. Two figures came out from the shadows.

"Sting and Rogue?" Lucy asked **(A/N: Might as well add them now or never)**.

"That's us!" Sting said.

"You dare defy a god?" Sakura asked.

"God? What do you mean? You don't look like a g-" Rogue was cut off by a spear right in front of his face.

"Where did you get that spear from?" Lucy asked.

"Arc of Embodiment," the goddess replied.

"Who are you, again?" Sting asked once more, Sakura pointed the spear at Sting.

"Sakura, creator of all...according to the tales...?" she hesitantly replied.

Rogue hid behind Lucy, "Save me! We must have done something to make her come here," Rogue crying nonexistent tears.

"Hey, wait a minute...aren't you dead, blondie?" Sting asked.

"YOU'RE BLONDE TOO!" Lucy yelled, frustrated with Sting's habit of calling her 'blondie.'

"Lucy died, and I gave her a new body. She is identical to her old one except for blue eyes. And for your information, she knows all magic except god slaying magic. Don't make her angry," Sakura said.

"I guess you're homeless. Wanna live with me?" Sting asked.

"SHE IS NOT SHARING A PLACE WITH A JERK LIKE YOU!" blurted out Juvia.

"Ugh...get a room," Gajeel said.

"Gajeel..." Sakura said with a death glare.

Gajeel hid behind Levy "Save me."

* * *

Natsu went up to the request board and picked a request, "Oi, Happy! Let's do this job!" Natsu yelled.

Happy flew up to Natsu, "Go capture some bandits that stole a precious jewel, wanted dead or alive. Area: Youta. Client: Tomiko Takahashi," Happy read.

As they were walking towards the client's house, Natsu smelt Gajeel, Wendy and Juvia

"Hey!" Natsu yelled at them.

Sakura glanced at him, "Fuck. Lucy, put on the cloak," she demanded.

"What do you want, flame-head!?" Gajeel yelled.

"I just said hi..." Natsu replied, a little shocked with their reactions. Natsu sniffed the air again. He smelt Lucy and three other people.

"Hey, who are you people!?" Natsu asked.

"Do you not remember us!?" Rogue said.

"Oh right, Rogue and Sting. I don't know who the other people are,"

Natsu said. Sakura dashed up to Natsu and put her spear in front of his face. "Goddess Sakura," she gave him the same death glare she gave Rogue.

Natsu ran behind Wendy, "Save me," he said.

"And who is that? And why does she smell like Lucy?" Natsu asked, pointing at Lucy.

"That's L-, I mean Manami Yamauchi. She's very shy." Sakura replied.

"Can you take off your hood, Manami?" Natsu asked.

Lucy bit her lip and decided to remove her hood, despite Sakura's efforts to keep her identity hidden.

Natsu and Happy's eyes widened "L-Lucy?" they asked, astounded by what they saw. "She might have died but, I gave her another body. You must not tell anyone Lucy is alive!" Sakura yelled. "W-Why not?" Natsu asked "This is a good thing, everyone will just get mad at me if I don't tell them." "She is in the middle of training. She still needs to learn god-slaying magic." Sakura said.

"L-Luce, I'm sorry," apologised Natsu, "I won't forgive you so easily." Lucy replied. Natsu was expecting that. "Water Dragon's Roar!" Lucy yelled, a blast of water hit Natsu. "What the hell?" Natsu confusedly asked. "Lucy and I have trained together. She now knows all magic except god-slaying magic. Did you hear me the first time?" Sakura asked.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Lucy said, flames shot at Natsu. "Have you forgotten? I can eat fire." Natsu said, he tried to eat the flames, but he couldn't. "I can eat a god's flames but I can't eat these?" Natsu asked. "You can't eat them. I trained her so nobody could eat her attacks," Sakura said, "Never. Tell. Anyone. She's. Alive".

* * *

**Later**

Why did I just expose myself like that? I think I still have feelings for him, but I shouldn't! I need to get Natsu out of my mind! I took a shower and went to sleep and started training with Sakura... or maybe not...

* * *

"We're going to have to start training again tomorrow." Sakura said, "Poseidon couldn't make it." "So...can I for once in my life have normal dream about flying unicorns!?" I asked. "Nope," Sakura simply replied, she handed me a book with a leather cover with a pentagram on the front and some designs on the back. I looked through it and it had about 500 pages of handmade paper and on the front, there was a lock.

"This is a spellbook if you didn't know. I put some spells I haven't taught you yet in there. I might have taught you almost all magic but, I didn't teach you all the spells. Feel free to add your own," Sakura said. "Okay..." I nodded.

"Alright, you can have a break, now."

After that I had a normal dream. I was so used to training with Sakura that I felt kind of lonely.

* * *

**UPDATE: Changed some dialogue and stuff. Much better. But editing is hard when you have a song stuck in your head (Bernkastel's Image *cough* *cough*)**


	4. Return

**Hey everyone! Yeah... I'll just post some random shit for these notes. I got the spellbook thing from a spellbook that I bought in like August or something. NOT HARRY POTTER! I only watch a minute of the Harry Potter movies. Funny Quote: "I don't know. Do you fucking marathon Harry Potter or something?". Also, I read mythology, not Percy Jackson!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

I woke up and found the spellbook on my nightstand. I unlocked it with a silver key that lie right next to it and I looked through it. I found the 'F' page and found Fairy Glitter.

"Cana used that before, right?" I asked absolutely nobody, I shook the thought out of my head.

I looked at the 'what the spell' does part or whatever.

"I guess Mavis doesn't know what glitter is," I chuckled.

* * *

Natsu had a hard time keeping quiet about Lucy.

"Was that actually the goddess Sakura?" Natsu asked.

"I don't know. Nobody has really seen her before," Happy replied.

"Well if she isn't how did _she _learn all that magic?" Natsu questioned.

"Stop asking stuff…" Happy with a hint of annyoance in his tone.

"What? You met the goddess, Sakura!?" A stern voice said, it was Erza.

"Um... No, no I didn't," Natsu lied.

"Tell us the truth! Besides, why do you get to meet her!?" Gray yelled.

"Fine… I met her," Natsu said.

"What is she like!?" asked MiraJane, curiously.

"Well… really scary," Natsu recapped.

"She even got Gajeel to get down on his knees," to which everyone snickered at Gajeel, even Levy.

"And what else?"

"Really mean. She pointed her spear at my face."

"Pardon me!?" A voice boomed, a spear barely missed Natsu's face.

Natsu looked at the person who threw the spear, "Hey aren't you that Sakura person?"

"Is that a problem?"

Gasps were heard throughout the guild and then everyone got on their knees. "Please forgive us, goddess," they pleaded.

"You people are taking this too seriously. I'm not here to punish anyone," Sakura assured.

Everyone got up with a look of relief on their faces.

"Natsu Dragneel, you better not tell anyone," Sakura gave Natsu a cold death glare.

Natsu hid behind Erza, "Save me…"

"Tell anyone about what?" Erza asked.

"It's none of your business."

"It is! What is pestering you, goddess!?"

"Fine… It's about a deceased a member of this guild."

"But who?"

Everyone started to think, "Lucy!?" they screamed in realization.

"Actually, yes," Sakura emotionlessly replied.

"Then it totally is our business!" Gray yelled. "

Right, right, right. You pretty much kicked her out and killed her, so actually, it's not," Sakura said, half mocking and half serious.

Everyone stood there for a second, chuckling nervously.

"This is no laughing matter!" Sakura yelled, everyone then stood up straight.

* * *

**Four Years Later…**

FINALLY! I learned about all magic possible! There are still things I need to master, though. Some of the gods were complete torture.

_Flashback_

_"Take your clothes off, you'll need to concentrate and feel the water to control it," Poseidon said._

_ I did so. __I kept on having this feeling that Poseidon was looking at my body so I couldn't concentrate. After five minutes of this, I yelled._

_ "Stop looking at me! I can't concentrate with you doing that!" _**(A/N: I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE, SOMEBODY'S WATCHING ME. AND I HAVE NO PRIVACY.)**

_End of Flashback_

It's October 12th, 5:00 AM. I'm thinking about rejoining Fairy Tail and before anyone gets there, I will reveal my identity to Makarov. I put my cloak on and headed for Fairy Tail.

I walked into Fairy Tail, there was no drunk people lying on the floors or anything, that was quite unusual when I was part of Fairy Tail. I went to Makarov's office.

"Hello? Are you a new member?" he asked.

"Actually, I'm a returning one." I replied, removing my hood.

"L-Lucy?" Makarov asked in shock. "How are you alive?"

"The goddess gave me a new body," I answered.

Makarov nodded, "We will have a welcome back party as soon as everyone is here. Nobody will be going on missions." Makarov took a magic stamp tool **(A/N: Wikia is so uncreative...).**

"Where and what colour?" he asked.

"Left hand, light blue."

"Welcome back to Fairy Tail, Lucy Heartfilia." Makarov who was now 'Master' said.

* * *

"Nobody will go on jobs today!" Makarov shouted.

"Why? What did we do, Ji-chan?" Natsu asked.

"I have a big surprise," Makarov said.

Lucy stepped out of Makarov's office, gasps were heard, "LUCY!?" everyone - that didn't know Lucy was alive - yelled.

"I'm alive, everyone," Lucy said, smiling.

"B-But, how!?" they asked. Sakura smiled and stepped out.

"I gave Lucy a new body," Sakura answered.

Everyone ran over to Lucy and gave her a hug then said their 'I'm sorry's and 'Welcome back's.

"Alright Erza, I want to fight!" Lucy said, bravely.

"Are you sure?" Erza questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Pretty sure," Lucy said confidently.

"Also, I taught her all magic, even god-slaying magic," intervened Sakura.

Everyone's jaw dropped to the ground. "Oh yeah, since they're fighting, I want to fight Sakura!" Natsu yelled. "Alright, then..." Sakura replied in a bored tone.

Sakura put her right hand in front of her and five orbs of light spun around in a circle until they formed a pentagon. In the middle a pentagram with runes appeared. Sakura launched the attack at Natsu and it hit him. Natsu was out cold, but he somehow woke up after ten seconds.

"That was impressive, it looked pretty powerful." Gray complimented.

"Actually, the runes on the pentagram said weak," Levy put her two cents in.

"Place your bets! Lucy or Erza!" Makarov said. This time, more people place their bets on Lucy because of the 'god-slaying magic' thing.

* * *

**UPDATE: I rewrote this chapter. Much better. Anyways, the "poll" is ended, so stop answering. I've had a few people do that. As I said, I might create a special fanfic for you Sting/Lucy shippers. Oh, did I say special? I actually meant alternate. I have "gotten over this ship", so I can basically ship anything and be okay with it. Hey, when you watch the anime and make the Gray/Angel crack ship, how can you resist!? **


	5. Confession

_**ALRIGHT! THIS IS A NORMAL CHAPTER!**_

**Okay, I was gonna post this on Friday, but I'm working on another story, I still need to plan out the plot and all that stuff.**

**Updated.**

**Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and I don't, blah blah blah. I'm too lazy to do the real disclaimer.**

* * *

"You can have the first move," Lucy said.

"Alright," Erza said. "Requip! Heaven's Wheel Armour!"

Erza launched five swords at Lucy.

"Roar of the Water Dragon!" Lucy shouted, a whirlpool of water shot out of her mouth and sent the swords back at Erza **(A/N: I didn't know how to put that. Don't judge me!)**.

"What was that?" Erza asked, she tried to dodge but got hit by a small portion of her swords.

"Requip! Lightning Empress Armour! Lightning Beam!" **(A/N: Wikia!).** Erza fired a beam of lightning aimed for Lucy.

Lucy ate the lightning.

"What!?" Gray asked "Did Lucy just eat lightning!?"

"But she used water dragon slaying magic!" someone else shouted.

"Lucy, did you learn _that_?" asked Sakura out of nowhere.

"Yep," Lucy replied.

"Now what would _that _be?" Erza asked.

"This," Lucy replied.

Five orbs of light spun around in a circle until they formed a pentagon, a pentagram with runes formed inside the pentagon, Lucy launched the attack at Erza. The attack hit Erza and knocked her out.

"Did you just learn it?" Sakura asked, "The runes said 'strong'. If you mastered it you would only have to use the weak type."

Delayed gasps were heard throughout the guil,d "Did Lucy just defeat Erza!?" Wendy asked.

"I understand that you beat Gajeel, but Erza!?" Happy asked through his shock.

"MiraJane, insult Erza," Sakura requested with so-called "good intentions."

"Okay!" Mira cheerfully complied, "Erza, get your ass moving, you weak S-class!"

Erza woke up, "What did you just say, you succubus whore!?"

"Woah, relax. I had her say an insult so you would wake up," Sakura defended.

"Hey wasn't that the same attack Sakura used on me?" Natsu asked.

"Of course, what did it look like?" said Lucy.

"Alright, the people who put their money on Erza, keep your money," Sakura demanded.

"Thank you! I really needed to buy a new shirt!" someone yelled.

"Sakura, fight me again!" Natsu yelled.

_*SMACK*_

Natsu was knocked out.

"I win," she simply commented.

A loud bell rung, gasps could be heard throughout Magnolia, "Attention citizens of Magnolia! Please get inside the nearest building!" speakers yelled. There were a bunch of people running into Fairy Tail.

The doors broke open, revealing Gildarts.

Natsu immediately woke up, driven by his anxiousness and excitement. "Fight me, Gildarts!"

Gildarts kicked Natsu, sending him flying "Now is that the correct way to greet the guild's strongest member?"

"You are Gildarts, are you not?" asked Sakura.

"Yes, and may I ask who you are?" Gildarts answered.

"Sakura. The goddess Sakura," she said. _"And the lowest ranking one..."_ she muttered under her breath.

The random people and Gildarts gasped.

"Ugh, would you people stop gasping?! I think it's happened enough times already!" yelled Sakura.

"I want to see Gildarts and Sakura fight!" Natsu encouraged a fight.

"Well then, place your goddamn bets again!" Makarov yelled, everyone placed their bets, half bet Sakura the other half bet Gildarts.

"Wait, I didn't even agr-" Sakura was cut off by the overly-loud counting of Makarov.

"3... 2... 1..." people sweared to god that the two were staring so hard, it formed sparks.

_"GO!"_

"Disassembly magic!" yelled Gildarts, launching the magic at Sakura.

"Reverse!" Sakura sent the magic back at him, Gildarts got hit.

Everyone paused for a moment before a bunch of tiny Gildarts' rained down on everyone.

"Why I did I get hit with _my_ attack!?" a chibi Gildarts yelled.

"I can't believe it! Gildarts was beat!" Natsu yelled.

"What did you expect?" Sakura asked. Makarov ran off to finish some documents.

* * *

**Time Skip- 10:30 PM**

"Natsu, can you take Lucy to her apartment? She fell asleep," requested Sakura.

"Sure, fine, whatever," Natsu replied with sass. Natsu picked Lucy up bridal-style and started to run to her apartment.

"Don't forget Happy," Sakura said, throwing the sleeping Exceed at Natsu. Natsu arrived at Lucy's apartment and put Lucy on her bed.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked, her eyes fluttering open.

"Yeah?" Natsu asked, it was completely silent for a moment.

"Nevermind," Lucy said.

"Lucy..." Natsu said, "What?" Lucy asked.

"I-I... I love you!" Natsu said. "I'm sorry Natsu, I don't know if I feel the same. Just give me one day to think," Lucy said. **(A/N: *Facepalm* This really is not going how I planned!) **

"Okay..." Natsu replied, Lucy fell asleep, but Natsu slipped under the covers.

Lucy thought Natsu was drunk.

* * *

Natsu saw Lucy when he was rushing towards Fairy Tail.

"So Luce, have you made up your mind?" Natsu rushed, disregarding the properties of love.

"Not yet," said Lucy wearily and tiredly.

Natsu kicked the guild doors open and there was a bunch of people drunk, some dancing on tables, MiraJane and Kinana trying to keep up with orders and most of all, fights.

"What happened?" Natsu asked, wondering what the celebration was about.

"The goddess joined! We are unstoppable!" Gray yelled.

Natsu looked to the left to see a bunch of people beat up and Sakura standing there, arms folded. "And that's what happens when you challenge a god!" Sakura yelled. The Fairy Tail insignia was visible near her left shoulder.

* * *

**UPDATE: Added a few things. Deleted a few things.**


	6. Reversion: Unexpected Surprises

**Gomenasai! Yes, I deleted 'From Your Caring Author', because... Well, it wasn't really needed much anymore and stuff like that. I might add it as a bonus chapter... Now the moment you've all been waiting for... *Random drum roll***

**_NATSU AND LUCY WON! REJOICE NALU FANS!_**

**YOU ALSO GET BRAGGING RIGHTS! Okay, just kidding. I know, I know, I updated a little late... Okay, really late, but I was busy! Here, have some bread! *Secretly pours some alcohol on the bread and gives it to you***

**Sting/Lucy: Two votes**

**Natsu/Lucy: Six votes**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, if I did, I wouldn't have listened to the fans who wanted Lisanna to come back.**

* * *

"Wendy!" Wakaba shouted, "Alright!" Wendy replied.

Wendy healed everyone.

Lucy was dragged outside by Natsu, "Now have you decided?" he asked.

"Jeez you're impatient. I actually have made up my mind, I-I love you too... Natsu," Lucy replied, a little unsure.

Natsu dragged Lucy back inside, "Hey everyone, I have great news!" Natsu yelled.

"What is it human lighter?" Gray asked.

"Lucy and I are a couple!" Natsu replied.

Everyone gasped, it was silent for a moment, "Let's have a party!" MiraJane yelled, hoping for some more money.. Everyone cheered.

"Sakura, I challenge you to a drinking contest!" Cana yelled, pointing at Sakura.

"Challenge accepted, you're on." Sakura replied.

Sakura and Cana each picked up a barrel full of alcohol, "3, 2, 1... Go!" Macao said. Sakura finished her barrel within ten seconds, Cana finished hers five seconds after.

"You -hic- ready to -hic- give up yet?" Cana asked, extremely drunken.

"No not -hic- yet." Sakura replied, not as drunk.

They finished their drinking contest five minutes later, Sakura won, not in the least sober while Cana was throwing up in the bathroom.

"Mira, let's fight like the old days!" Erza yelled, a dark aura surrounding her.

"You're going down this time, Scarlet." MiraJane spat.

"Requip! Heaven's Wheel Armour!" Erza said, Erza requipped ten swords and launched them at Mira.

"Takeover! Satan Soul!" MiraJane yelled, her body transformed into a demon figure. MiraJane dodged the swords with ease and lunged at Erza.

When they finished, they were both covered in bruises and cuts, they collapsed.

"Wendy!" Romeo yelled, pointing at Erza and Mira.

"I'm on it!" the young girl, healed them.

"Hey Luce, fight me!" Natsu said, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Natsu.

"Er... Place your bets...?" Sakura said, almost everyone bet on Lucy.

* * *

"Fight!" Sakura yelled.

Natsu lunged at Lucy, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu yelled.

Lucy dodged, "Water God's Roar!" she yelled. The attack hit Natsu and sent him flying into the guild doors.

"Celestial Magic: Meteor Crash!" Lucy called. Stars and a night sky surrounded Lucy and Natsu, a great meteor lunged out of the sky and hit Natsu.

The guild doors were gone and Natsu was out cold on the ground. "Get up, idiot!" Sakura said.

Natsu was still lying on the ground.

"Happy..." started Sakura.

"Aye!" replied the Exceed. "Natsu! Lucy's in a bikini this time!"

Natsu woke up, "Where!? Where!?" Natsu yelled.

"Pervert!" Lucy yelled, kicking Natsu out the window.

Sakura looked out the window. "Hey, aren't there a lot of Natsu fangirls around here?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, why?" Happy asked, "Er..." Sakura replied.

A crowd of girls ran over to Natsu and tried to strip him, "Oh... I know what you mean," said a giggling Happy.

"Aren't you gonna do something, Lucy?" Sakura asked. Too late. Aquarius was shooting water at the girls.

"You dare call me weak and ugly!?" Aquarius yelled.

* * *

"Sakura! I want a rematch!" Cana yelled.

After they finished, Sakura lost, she didn't vomit, just collapse. Cana was a bit more sober than she was last time.

Erza was also drunk and shoved a bottle of saké in Natsu's mouth, Natsu spit most of it out but swallowed some.

"Oh yes, even a little alcohol has a strong effect on dragon slayers," said Sakura out of absolutely nowhere.

Sakura accidentally teleported Lucy and Natsu to Lucy's apartment while drunk.

* * *

**The Next Day...**

Lucy walked to the guild, "Ugh... I feel like my magic is depleting." Lucy put her hand on her stomach.

Lucy made it to Fairy Tail and opened the doors. Drunk people were everywhere, sleeping. Sakura suddenly woke up and slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey, there's only thirty people here, right? I'm sensing thirty-one... Why...?" stated Sakura.

"DON'T FORGET ME!" Lucy reminded.

"I didn't," Sakura collapsed back on the floor, still tired. "Five more minutes..." she muttered.

The doors flung open, and Natsu was standing there.

"Morning everyone!" Natsu burst out.

Sakura woke up when she was about to go back to sleeping. "Since when did you greet people?" Sakura asked.

"Hey, I'm just being nice," answered Natsu.

"Sure you are," Sakura said, finding peace and falling back to sleep once again. Natsu sniffed the air.

"Hey Luce, why do I smell something weird on you?"

"I don't know," Lucy said.

Lucy collapsed but Natsu caught her just before she hit the ground, "Luce, are you alright!?" Natsu asked.

"I'm fine," she assured.

The tired goddess woke up once more, because she jsst couldn't go back to sleep. She closed her eyes for five seconds and then opened them.

"Lucy, I need to talk to you... In private..." Sakura said.

They walked over to a corner.

"Yeah, what is it?" Lucy asked.

"Er... You're p-pregnant," Sakura reluctantly admitted.

"WHAT!?" Lucy yelled an octave too high.

"Do you remember when I teleported you and Natsu to your apartment?"

* * *

_Flashback_

_"What the hell!? When did I get here!?" Lucy asked._

_ "Well, I need a shower," Lucy started to strip her clothes._

_ "What are you doing, Luce?" Natsu asked drunkenly._

_ Lucy turned around, "Natsu! I didn't see you there!" she said while blushing._

_ "Luce, sleep with me," Natsu said._

_"Um... Can I at least take a shower first?" Lucy asked._

_ "No, now," the drunken Natsu replied. Lucy plopped herself on the mattress, "Fine..." Lucy said. _**(A/N: I'm not gonna be so detailed, okay? The rest of this flashback depends on your imagination, just like my A/N chapter)**

_End Of Flashback(?)_

* * *

"Oh... right," Lucy said, recapping.

"Lucy, the baby will be taking some of your magic power until it is born," Sakura said.

"That explains why I'm so nauseous," said Lucy in realization.

"Oi Sakura, what baby?" asked Natsu.

"Huh? What baby?" Sakura asked, pretending like she didn't know.

"I heard you say something about a baby," Natsu replied.

"Oh, right. I was talking about someone else," Sakura said.

Lucy ran out the guild doors, _'How am I going to tell Natsu!? Will he hate me if I tell him!?'_ Lucy thought.

"Where are you going!?" Natsu yelled

"Nowhere!" Lucy yelled. Lucy ran to Spirit Woods, a secret place only the gods knew about. She only knew about it because of Sakura.

* * *

It was foggy. I sat down near a tree.

"Layla?" I heard a voice ask. I saw a soul of a little girl appear before me.

"Who are you? Why do you look like Layla?" the girl asked.

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia, my mother was Layla Heartfilia," I replied.

"Oh, the queen never told us your name." the girl said.

"Huh? Queen?" I asked.

"Follow me," The girl emotionlessy said.

I followed the girl and saw a beautiful place and a huge palace. The girl knocked on the doors.

"Queen?" she asked.

"Yes, Youko?" I heard a voice ask, it sounded like my mother...

"Your daughter has come," Youko (I guess) said. The doors opened.

"I will show you around," said Youko. Youko showed me around and after an hour of walking, we arrived at a huge room. Youko opened the door.

I saw my mother, I must be imagining things.

"Welcome, Lucy," the person who looked like my mother said.

I had a bunch of different emotions swirling inside me. Happiness, anger, confusion. Happy that my mother is alive, angry because she left me, confused why she's still alive.

"M-Mom?" I asked.

"I am sorry for leaving you, Lucy," my mother said. "Please forgive me."

* * *

**Yeah, I'm gonna stop right there. I used a name generator and a few other things. Youko means 'Sun child' or 'Ocean child'. I'm using it as 'Sun child', I'm thinking about creating another spirit named 'Tsukiko'. Tsukiko meaning 'Moon child'. Though what I'm about to say is irrelevant to Fairy Tail, I have a note for Sailor Moon fans. The main character is 'Usagi' because Usagi means 'Moon'. Okay, I'm done. Again, sorry for updating so late.**


	7. Continuous Training

**Ugh... I'm being put under a lot of pressure this week. Okay, drama matters aside. Yeah... Sorry I haven't been updating lately, I'm going through some 'training'. Oh yeah, for those of you that know about it, I failed at Astral Project again. I know, I suck.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, if I did... NALU!**

* * *

**Lucy's P.O.V.**

"M-Mom, how could you leave me!?" I yelled, tears streaming down my face. "I'm sorry, Lucy..." My mother said, I ran out of the palace, back into the foggy woods. "Hitomi, give it back!" I heard a voice yell, "You're so stubborn, Naomi. I'm just going to look at your spells." another voice said.

I walked towards the voices and found two girls, one had lavender hair and a white crescent moon painted on a black dress. The other girl had brown hair and a yellow sun painted on a white dress. The two girls looked at me, "Queen, tell her to give me back my spellbook!" the lavender-haired girl whined. "I'm not the queen. I'm only her daughter." I said, "But still, tell her to give back my spellbook!". I looked at the brown-haired girl "Okay, give her spellbook back.", the brown-haired girl gave the spellbook back.

"Oh right, we haven't introduced ourselves yet! I'm Hitomi!" The lavender-haired girl said, "And I'm Naomi." the brown-haired girl said. "Lucy Heartfilia." I said, "So you're the queen's daughter?" Hitomi asked "Yes." I replied. "How did you find this place?" Naomi asked, "Do you know Sakura?" I asked. The angels shivered "What?" I asked, "She's really scary when she's angry." Naomi said. "Yeah, I heard that she threw a spear at some pink dragon guy once." Hitomi added.

_'Natsu...'_ I thought. "What exactly are you two?" I asked, "Lunar Angel." Hitomi said "Solar Angel." Naomi said. "Sakura never told me about this..." I said. "What? She forgot about us?" Hitomi asked, crying rivers. "Actually, I think Sakura said something about two angels. I just wasn't paying attention." Lucy said, _'Hitomi really is outgoing' _I thought.

"Has Sakura taught you all magic!?" Hitomi asked, interrupting my thoughts, "Yes." I replied.

"Did you master all of it!?"

"No, not yet."

"Then you can train with us! And we can also teach you our magic!"

_'So there was magic Sakura didn't teach me...'_ I thought. "Yes, Sakura doesn't like teach people Solar or Lunar magic." Naomi said, as if reading my mind. "Why not?" I asked "We don't know..." Naomi replied.

* * *

"First, we will teach you Aera." Naomi said "Like what the Exceeds use?" I asked. "Actually, this Aera is a little different." Hitomi said. "Concentrate and imagine wings sprouting out of your back." Naomi said, I did what Naomi told me to do. After fifteen seconds, I opened my eyes and there were angel wings on my back. "I did it!" I said "But you still need to learn how to fly." Hitomi said.

I paused, "Oh yeah...", "Imagine your wings lifting you two feet off the ground." Hitomi said. I closed my eyes and did just that, sure enough, I was two feet off the ground. "Perfect!" Naomi said, "And don't forget, this was your first try". I can't believe I actually forgot it was my first try!

"Now move around." Hitomi said "How am I supposed to do that!?" I yelled. "Er... You're doing it." Hitomi said. I looked down, I was flying, I practiced for ten more minutes and finally got the hang of it. "Oh yeah, what is so special about this Aera?" I asked. "This Aera has attacks." Naomi replied, "First off, use some of your magic and go fast." I did as told and I went so fast I ran into a tree... Almost. I braced myself for impact, but I never felt the tough bark. I opened my eyes and looked behind me, the tree got cut in half.

I heard clapping, "For the attack, you go so fast that you cut your target." Hitomi said. "Now on to the next atta-" I cut Hitomi off, "Can't I at least practice?" I asked. "Whoops, I forgot." Hitomi said, chuckling nervously. "Anyway we'll let you practice." Naomi said. I practiced for thirty minutes and the forest was almost cleared, I saw Naomi and Hitomi "Oh crap! Hopefully, you didn't cut down the spirit trees!" Hitomi yelled.

Naomi closed her eyes for a second and then opened them, "None of the spirit trees are gone." Naomi said. "Thank God." Hitomi said, "Um... Sorry to interrupt but, spirit trees?" I asked. "Spirit trees are trees with the souls of the dead." Naomi replied, "So, if someone dies their soul goes into one of these trees?" I asked. "Actually, only the higher-up people and they cannot have evil motives." Hitomi said.

"Anyway, let us see how good you are with this Aera." Naomi said, I summoned my wings and flew full speed toward a tree. I heard a crash, "Very good." Naomi said. "We'll teach you another spell tomorrow. Please return to the palace." Hitomi said.

I hesitated. After standing there for ten seconds, I finally mustered up the courage to go back. I entered, "Princess, where were you? We got worried!" Youko yelled "I was training with Hitomi and Naomi." I replied. "Oh, okay. What did you learn?" Naomi asked, "A 'special' type of Aera." I said.

I heard footsteps, it was my mother. "I'm sorry, Lucy. I should have never left you." My mother said, I saw the guilt in her eyes "It's okay mom, I'm over it." I replied. "Youko, show her to her room." My mother said, "Aye!" Youko replied. _'Youko is like Happy. Somewhat annoying and nice, yells 'Aye!' for a 'yes'.' _I thought.

Youko led me to a large room, "Princess, this is your bedroom. Feel free to call me if you need anything." Youko said. "Don't worry Youko, I have Virgo." I said. "But still, if you need me, call me." Youko commented.

* * *

**Somewhere, Normal P.O.V.**

A white-haired girl sat in a chair, "I'll get my revenge, Lucy Heartfilia. I'll have Natsu once and for all." she said. "I'll get my revenge." She laughed menacingly, "The plan is complete." someone said. "Good." The girl replied.

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**Bleh, third time I failed Astral Project. Alright, if you have an ideas for the plan 'you probably already know who' is going to use review (or something). Also leave a review if you liked!**


	8. Confusion

**AN ACTUAL CHAPTER! Okay, I admit it. I wasn't busy, I actually just took a break. Anyway, I need ideas! Quick! Also please start reading the A/Ns at the beginning (Like this), because when it comes to A/N chapters, I don't want you to get confused. Even if I bolded, italicized and underlined the warning, some of you probably won't read it. Ugh... I have no ideas for this chapter. Thumbs down (-_-)p**

**Disclaimer: Tana Satou/Sakura does not own Fai-**

**Me: YES I DO!**

**Disclaimer: *Gives me a death glare***

**Me: Okay... I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does**

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**Fairy Tail, Normal P.O.V.**

"Sakura, do you know where Luce is?" Natsu asked "Um... No idea." Sakura lied. "She finally comes back one day and then she's gone the next. What the hell?" Natsu said. The guild doors opened, Lisanna was standing there. "What do you want, Lisanna!?" Someone shouted. "I don't know I have done for you to yell at me." Lisanna replied, "You don't remember why we kicked you out!?" everyone asked.

"Please forgive me, I don't know what came over me. I met a strange person the day before and... I think he cast a spell on me." Lisanna said "What makes you think we'll forgive you so easily?" Gray asked. Lisanna held out a document. Erza snatched it. "It says she was under a manipulation spell. The document, it's signed by... Asuka Takahashi." Erza said. "Asuka Takahashi... She's the best doctor in Fiore." Gray said. "You can join, tell us if you're manipulated again." Erza said. "Arigatou, Fairy Tail." Lisanna said.

Lisanna went upstairs to Makarov's office, everyone whispered to the nearest person.

"Can we really trust her?"

"Well, Asuka signed the document."

"What if she forged her signature?"

"No way! Asuka's signature looks just like that!"

"How do you know? You've never seen her signature."

"Did someone call me?" A voice asked, everyone looked to where the voice came from. "We're talking about another Asuka, sweetie." **(A/N: I know. That was so corny) **Bisca said. "Oh, okay..." Asuka said and walked away. Lisanna came back down with the Fairy Tail insignia on her left shoulder, where she had it before she went to Edolas.

"I'm not so sure I can trust her..." Sakura whispered, "What why not? Asuka Takahashi signed the document." Erza said. "Fine, I'll give her a chance..." Sakura said _'I won't give her another chance, I already know her evil intentions... It'll be hard getting this mage guild to believe me.' _Sakura thought.

"Welcome back to Fairy Tail." Erza said to Lisanna "Thank you, Erza." Lisanna replied. _'Good, they believe me.'_ Lisanna thought. Lisanna pointed at Sakura, "Who's that?". "That's Sakura she's a go-" Natsu got cut off by Sakura, "I'm a god slayer". "What the hell, you're a goddess right? Why are you saying you're a god slayer?" Gray asked "Shut up, Gray." Sakura said.

"Lisanna, do you know anything about the weirdo that attacked you?" Natsu asked "Well... It was a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes and she used all sorts of magic." Lisanna commented. "What? No way!" Erza said. "Who's 'her', do you have another new member?" Lisanna asked. "Nevermind..." Gray said, shaking his head. "Oh yeah, Master told me about Lucy, thank god she's alive! I'll apologise to her as soon as she gets back!" Lisanna said. "Excuse me." Sakura stood up and walked away.

* * *

Sakura walked into Spirit Woods, spirits welcomed her "Welcome back, goddess". "Is Lucy Heartfilia here?" Sakura asked "Yes, she's training with Hitomi and Naomi." a spirit replied. Sakura walked to where Naomi and Hitomi usually were and sure enough, Lucy was with them. Hitomi noticed Sakura, "Oh crap! Naomi, she's back!" Hitomi said, sweating a river. Hitomi and Naomi straightened their posture, "Welcome, Sakura." they said.

"Lucy, I have some bad news..." Sakura said, Lucy looked at Sakura "What?". "Lisanna has joined the guild again." Sakura said.

"Sakura, are you pulling my leg?"

"Not at all. Lisanna said she was under a manipulation spell, she was clearly lying."

"Why not tell everyone that she's lying?"

"It's too hard to get them to believe me."

"I suggest you put on a cloak and use the fake identity again. Who knows what she's up to..." Sakura said, throwing Lucy a black cloak. Lucy caught it and put it on, "I'm ready". "Then let's go back, Manami." Sakura said.

* * *

Sakura opened the door, "I'm back!" she yelled. People were glaring at Sakura, "What the hell is going on?" Sakura asked. "You shouldn't have taught her all that magic. You shouldn't have given her a new body. YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HER STAY DEAD!" They yelled, "Stop it! How could you say that about Lucy-san!?" Wendy yelled. "Silence, bastards!" Sakura yelled.

The guild was silent, "What the hell is going on!?" Sakura asked. "Lucy attacked Lisanna again!" Natsu yelled, "Lu-chan didn't do a thing!" Levy yelled. "I didn't do it." A voice said, everyone turned their heads to where the voice came from. Lucy stood there, without her cloak. "Liar! Lisanna remembers every little detail!" Natsu said, "You are that foolish!? Calling your own mate a liar!?" Sakura yelled.

Everyone paused, "Wait, what?" Gajeel asked. "Mate?" Wendy asked, "It's about time I tell you... I'm pregnant." Lucy said. Everyone except Lucy and Sakura stood there, their jaws dropping to the floor. "Natsu got drunk." Sakura added. Fairy Tail became as quiet as a library until Natsu screamed "WHAT THE HELL!?".

"Screw you, bitch! You stole my Natsu!" Lisanna yelled, lunging at Lucy. "Light Magic: Holy Light!" Lucy yelled, a blinding light shone on Lisanna, when the light disappeared Lisanna fell to the ground covered in bruises. "Lisanna!" Natsu yelled, he ran to Lisanna and caught her just before she hit the ground. "Please get revenge for me, Natsu." Lisanna said weakly.

"You bitch!" Natsu yelled at Lucy. "Idiot! You are going to attack your mate!?" Sakura yelled. Natsu lunged at Lucy, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" he yelled. Right before Natsu could hit Lucy, Sakura threw a red crystal in front of Lucy "Protect this human from harm!" Sakura yelled. The crystal glowed and formed a barrier in front of Lucy, Natsu hit the barrier instead of Lucy and got thrown into the walls.

"What the hell!? Were you trying to kill her!?" Levy yelled. "Yes, to get revenge for the one I love." Natsu replied, "Snap out of it! You said you loved _me_, didn't you!?" Lucy yelled. "What are you saying? I never loved you." Natsu said. "No, what are you saying?" Sakura asked, using the same attack Lucy used.

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**I got really weird in this chapter. Leave a review if you liked it! Also, feel free to leave a suggestion!**


	9. Punishment

**OKAY! OKAY! Here's your update, now read it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does. If I did own Fairy Tail... NaLi, GrayLu, NatZa, etc... wouldn't exist**

* * *

The light disappeared. Natsu fell on to the ground, covered in wounds, there was blood on the wall. Fairy Tail was silent, once again. "What just happened?" someone asked, breaking the silence "I don't know...?" Gajeel responded. "Hang in there, Natsu-san! I'll heal you right away!" Wendy said, rushing to Natsu's side "Black Magic: Heal Block." Sakura said. Wendy tried to heal Natsu. Keyword: Tried. Natsu's wounds wouldn't close up "Why did you do that!?" Lisanna yelled.

"Lisanna Stratuss, you were not under a manipulation spell. You attacked and blamed Lucy with your own will, and you forged Asuka Takahashi's signature. Do you really love Dragneel so much that you go to the extreme?" Sakura said, "Oh shit, she's using last names. She's serious now..." Lucy said. "Dragneel, who do you really love? Be brutally honest, even if it hurts one's feelings." Sakura said, Natsu hesitated for a long minute. "I don't know." He finally said. "Alberona..." Sakura said, looking at Cana. "Right!" Cana said, as if reading Sakura's mind. Cana laid five cards down on the table and flipped them over **(A/N: Why five? You wouldn't understand)**.

"Lucy." Cana said, "I thought so..." Sakura said. "I decided." Natsu said, Sakura looked at him, "Then tell us your decision." Sakura said. "I truly love Lisanna. She is the only one that I ever have loved." Natsu said.

_*SMACK*_

Sakura smacked Natsu, "If you truly loved Lisanna, you would have confessed to her and not Lucy." Sakura said. "S-Sakura-san, don't you think he's hurt enough? And his wounds won't close up!" Wendy said, "Unblock." Sakura said, "Now try". Wendy was able to successfully heal Natsu's wounds. Lisanna suddenly fell down "Crap! It's wearing off!" Lisanna said. "What is wearing off?" Erza asked, "Er... Nothing." Lisanna lied.

"No, tell us."

"I said it was nothing!"

"I see... You put Natsu under a manipulation spell, actually, someone else did." Sakura said, everyone turned and looked at Sakura. "Wait, what?" Lucy said.

* * *

**An Hour Later...?**

"Well, Lisanna's gone for good." Erza said, "She won't come back anytime soon." Sakura said.

_~Flashback~_

_"What is going on here!?" Makarov burst out of his office. "It's a long story..." Erza said "At least tell me!" Makarov said. "Lisanna forged Asuka Takahashi's signature, attacked Lucy, had someone put Natsu under a manipulation spell and... That's about it." Sakura explained. Makarov zoomed to the telephone **(A/N: I don't think they even have a telephone)** "Master, what are you doing?" Levy asked. Makarov didn't respond, two seconds later, police cars could be heard around Fairy Tail._

_Officers came out of the cars and put Lisanna in handcuffs, "Lisanna Stratuss, you are under arrest for forging, attacking an innocent and manipulating an innocent." an officer said._

_~End of Flashback~_

"What if she does?" Natsu asked, "Believe me, she won't." Sakura replied.

_5 Seconds Later..._

"With Lisanna gone it's kinda boring, arguing and fighting and all that other stuff." Gray said. "I still have to get you back for that one time!" Natsu yelled, "You're still angry about that?" Gray asked. "You did bullshit him." Lucy said. **(A/N: WARNING! NON-CANONICAL INFORMATION, ONLY IN THE ANIME!) **"You fucking did that all because you wanted to fight him and that lead to him being put in some mechanical dragon which eventually turned into some of Magnolia getting destroyed!" Sakura yelled.

"Well I did that for a reason!" Gray argued. "Like what?" Sakura asked, Gray thought, "I don't know..." he said. "Are we going to fight or what, ice princess!?" Natsu yelled "Bring it on, flamebrain!" Gray yelled back.

_1 Minute Later..._

Broken tables were all over the place. Jet and Droy got frozen in ice, Erza and Sakura had a murderous aura, Cana's barrels got destroyed, the jobs on the request board got burned, MiraJane and Kinana came out from hiding under the bar and most of all, Makarov was yelling. "BRATS! WHO DID THIS!?" Makarov yelled. Natsu and Gray pointed at each other, accusingly. "OF COURSE IT WAS YOU TWO!" Makarov yelled. Erza, Sakura, MiraJane, Gildarts (Who is here for no reason at all) and Makarov glared at the two idiots. "SAVE ME!" Natsu and Gray yelled, hiding behind the nearest person, which was Lucy.

Lucy moved away, "You guys deserve it..." Lucy said.

* * *

Natsu and Gray were on the floor, beaten up. "As an extra punishment, you are not allowed to go on jobs without one of us. This will last two months." Sakura said. "Natsu, not going on jobs is better than going with them." Happy whispered, "Shut up, cat!" Erza yelled. "Natsu, Erza's being mean to me!" Happy said with fake tears. "Sorry buddy, I can't do anything." Natsu replied.

"But there's another catch. If all of us are busy, you can't do a job." Sakura said, "Well can I at least go with Luce?" Natsu asked. All of them whispered, "Fine..." they replied in unison. "BUT!" MiraJane started, "You must ask if she wants to. And you can only take a job with her two times a week". Everyone nodded their head. "Unless she wants you to tag along." Gildarts ended.

"Luce, let's go on a job." Natsu said, "Hold on! We're not letting you off the hook that easily! You can't take jobs for the rest of this week." Makarov said. "Gray, you cannot go on missions at all. We know Juvia will take you no matter what." Erza said "Hey, you let Natsu go on jobs just as long as he's with someone! At least make it fair!" Gray yelled. "_You're like a kid... Still complaining about what's equal... _Fine, you must go with one of us." Sakura begrudgingly said.

"Natsu can go with someone other than you guys!"

"Fine! But you'll have to go with... I don't know, Romeo or someone. Someone that can keep you under control."

"YES!"

"But again, you can't go on jobs this week."

"Fuck..."

Everyone started to repair the guild, "AND ANOTHER PUNISHMENT!" Erza yelled, "NATSU AND GRAY HAVE TO CLEAN THIS PLACE UP BY THEMSELVES IN FOUR HOURS OR LESS!" Sakura ended. "What's with all the punishments?" Wendy asked, "Stress build-up." they all replied.

"I had to deal with fighting a monster as powerful as Deliora. People kept pulling on my sleeves for heals even though they didn't have a single scratch." Sakura said, "Those idiots..." Erza said, pointing at Natsu and Gray. "The Magic Council..." Makarov said, "I'm worried about my girl." Gildarts annoyingly said. "I don't have any more than a liter of whiskey left and people are ordering five liters! Five liters!" MiraJane yelled.

"Oh, I see." Wendy said, "Good luck cleaning up Natsu-san, Gray-san!" she cheerfully said as she exited.

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**Gomenasai! I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been busy, for real. I'm practicing exorcism on my own (I will take the risk) and blah blah blah. **

**Don't forget to leave a review if you liked it! I'm out, wish me luck on my exorcism-on-my-own!**


	10. Bonds: Memories

**Alright, I finally got my document submission system working again. I am in the process of writing a Wai- I mean, Fire Emblem fanfic... because, duh. Anyways, I'm going to slow the story pace down, if I hadn't done that will the fillers already. As I said, Matthew will be taking a part later on in the story, so will Celeste and Maxwell. (Celeste will actually take part in this chapter, because why not!?) I had to rewrite this quite a few times. BY THE WAY. I AM REWRITING EARLY CHAPTERS, SO EXPECT MORE LATE UPDATES. UPDATES MIGHT BE SHORT.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, it's character or any of the magis associated with it. Hiro Mashima owns all. Except my OCs.**

* * *

It was raining all throughout Fiore. "ALL RIGHT YOU TWO, GET OVER HERE!" Erza yelled with fires of rage in her eyes. Natsu and Gray had not completed cleaning the guild in the desired amount of time. They swiftly ran across the guild to avoid recieving further punishment from Erza. Sakura casted a weak bind magic on them and motioned to Erza to proceed. Erza grabbed the two by the collar and collided their heads against one another… Not one, not two, not three, but five times! Natsu and Gray fell to the ground, their eyes spinning. MiraJane smacked both of them multiple times and as soon as Sakura lifted her hand to cast a "punish" spell, an eerie noise was heard outside of the guild. "What's that?" Lucy asked, skeptically. Erza paused, "I don't know, but let's check it out." Everyone ran outside. A girl that looked very much like Sakura, but taller with grey eyes, stood in a soft, blue light.

"M- I mean, Celeste!" Sakura said, I serious look on her face. "Sakura, you know her?" Natsu asked. "Will you not call me 'Mother', my dear Sakura?" the woman, supposedly named Celeste, said. "Don't call me your daughter! And I will never call you 'Mother' ever again!" Sakura yelled, tears forming in her eyes. "Daughter? Mother?" Erza put the pieces together, she stepped back, her eyes wide. "You're Sakura's mother?" Erza asked. "Correct, but Sakura never wants me to consider me as one," Celeste replied, shaking her head. "Sakura, what's going on?" Natsu asked, obliviously. Sakura's eyes widened as she reviewed her memories. Her mother abandoning her, Maxwell tricking her, her mother falling for it. The only good thing that came out of it was her step-brother, Matthew, who was like Celeste in terms of personality. But still sly like his father.

"I-I hate you!" Sakura said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Hate me all you wish, Sakura. But I have broken free of his trickery. I have finally come to apologise for what I done," Celeste calmly said. "Apologise for what?" Lucy butted in. Celeste turned to look at Lucy, "I fell for a man named Maxwell. He deceived me and convinced me to abandon Sakura." "T-That's horrible…" Lucy said, covering her mouth. "I-I hate you and Maxwell. The only one in this family that I care about is Matthew and… he left…" Sakura unintentionally ran to her mother and hugged her, as if she didn't have any control of her body. She sobbed into the fabric of her mother's clothes. "Matthew?" Gray asked. "Her step-brother. He is only an infant and he is in the Gods' Realm, somewhere Sakura never visited after she ran away. I don't know how she knows of Matthew," Celeste answered.

"I-I met the Matthew from the future…" Sakura told her mother through her sobs. Erza's stern position softened a little. Sakura had never been one to cry. Sakura hugged Celeste tighter "I've missed you so much, Mother!" she admitted. Celeste was a little surprised at how Sakura had called her Mother even though she said she wouldn't. "Where is Maxwell, now?" Sakura asked, her tears subsiding. "He's tricked yet another low-ranking god, one lower than us. It's quite bad, the poor girl was only 5000 while Maxwell is really 117000. He said he was 5080, from what I heard," Celeste responded.

"Couldn't his look alarm her that he was too old?"

"He uses a sort of magic that can fix that…"

Sakura quickly stood. "I have to stop that evil man before he tricks anyone else. And I hate to say it but…" Sakura started " I'm glad you fell for Maxwell, or else Matthew wouldn't have been born." "W-Wait, Sakura. Before you go, we need you to do a few requests!" Gray remembered. "Yeah, the guild is going poor," Natsu agreed. Sakura turned back to her mother "Mother, will you be staying?" she asked. "I might, if you wish," Celeste said.

"Then… you will?"

"I would be glad to."

Sakura hugged her mother once more. "So, can we do the requests now?" Natsu interrupted the bittersweet moment. Erza's eyes filled with rage fire, she chased after Natsu and Gray. "Why me!?" Gray asked. "Oh crap, got Erza mad," Natsu said, still running. "HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT SUCH A BEAUTIFUL MOMENT!" she roared. Everyone except Natsu, Gray and Erza, of course, got a chuckle out of it.

* * *

**I know, I know. The chapters shorter than normal, but the feels make up for it. Right? Right? Well hopefully it does. Writing it nearly made me cry but, my eyes are really dry at night, so yeah. Many thanks to NO ONE for inspiring me to write this chapter by DOING NOTHING. Okay, I actually thank the reviewers, it helps me keep me keep writing. I feel like my stories are crap when I first publish them, but when I get positive reviews, I feel much better. Thank you all. Also, about the late updates, I'm working on the Fire Emblem Fanfic too. So, don't expect me to update in rapid succession. Also, the gods are are really old, because why not? As far as I know Sakura's not going to get a love interest soon.**


	11. Unexpected Meeting

** Now that I have that off my shoulders, I've decided to respond to reviews. This month I am unusually nice to even be myself. But, I have an important announcement. I won't be updating Forgotten or Gone for a long time. I have lost motivation and ideas for it. I apologise for the long delay and making you wait. I ALSO HAVE ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT. For Sting/Lucy shippers, I plan on making an ALTERNATE version, just for you guys. But it'll have to wait. I haven't even finished getting the plot for this one set up.**

**FDsecretart - That depends. I plan on it, but if I screw up my plot, I probably won't.**

* * *

Sakura hid her face behind a spellbook with a black cover. She had been afraid that her guild members would embarrass her… in front of her mother. "Hey, Sakura." Sakura turned to where the vice came from and saw Natus standing there. "You've been giving us the silent treatment all day, we're starting to get worried. What happened?" he asked. Sakura looked back to her text. "Nothing, just reading my spellbook…" she lied. "I don't think so. Luce said you zip through those in five seconds without any magic and that you remember them perfectly. This isn't like you." Natsu caught onto the situation. "Look," she whispered "I'm afraid I'll embarrass myself in front of my mother. You know, I haven't seen her in about six-hundred years." "Six-hundred? How old are you!?" Natsu asked, suprised. "It's rude to ask a woman her age, but since you even have the guts to, I'll say it. I'm one-thousand three-hundred," she casually replied. "Wow, Sakura. You're _really _old," Natsu said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll do one of those jobs," Sakura stood up and took a paper off the S-class job board. After she signed out, she turned for the doors.

"Sakura, can I come?" Natsu asked. "Remember the no-job policy?" Sakura asked, rhetorically. Natsu's grin faltered a little, he sat down near Lucy and chatted with her as if nothing happened. She opened the doors, as she walked on the streets, she read the request. "Haruka Village… Destroy over-sized monster… Shelter a boy… 800,000- Wait, what?" Sakura looked at the paper again to see if she had read something wrong. _'Who said that I had to give a random stranger a home!? Well, this is what I get for not reading it first…' _she thought. Haruka Village was about 600,000 miles from Magnolia **(A/N: Haruka can either mean far away or spring flower. It's far away, perfect. Also it's springtime IRL)**. Sakura cast some speed magic on herself shorten the time it would take to get there. She nearly stopped to get a fig, but there was no time to waste.

* * *

It took me a bit of time to find Haruka Village. As soon as I found it, I went into a somewhat long house. There were only two houses. "Before you tell me about this creature, I ask you, how many people reside here?" I was quick to ask the person that requested. "Erm…" she stuttered, "Fourteen. Seven in each house…" So that's why it took so long. This is a village without incident, it's eerily quiet and it only has a small stream for a water source. "Alright, that was a bit rude of me. I am Sakura, could you tell me your name?" I decided to properly introduce myself. "Rena," she simply replied. "So about the monster-" Rena cut me off "the dreaded creature has been causing trouble at midnight. Apparently, the creature is holding a boy captive." "Hmm… could you describe this boy's appearance? Or do you not know?" I questioned. "Of course! We don't know how old he is, but he looks to be about seventeen and he has blue hair, like yours," she commented. My eyes widened, could he possibly be…? "Alright, can I stay here until midnight? In thanks for your hospitality, I shall gladly cook enough chicken four fourteen," I offered.

"Well, why not!?"

* * *

The residents complimented the chicken, saying it was the best meal they've had in years. It was nearing midnight and I headed out to then nearby forest where it was said the creature was lurking. Cautiously, I looked around, despite the darkness.I heard a rustling noise, "Who's there!? Show yourself!" I demanded. Of course, the usual thing happened. It was a simple squirrel. I sighed in relief. "They told me it was in this forest but never bothered to tell me _where _in the forest," I recapped. I heard a sudden scream and flinched in surprise. I shook my head and ran to where it came from. When I reached the source, I could barely make out a boy and a giant figure holding him in it's filthy claws. "Get your hands off of him!" I yelled, getting the creature's full attention. The beast roared at me and dropped the boy, I reacted by casting strong fire magic at it. The beast dodged, despite it's size. Either that or I missed due to the darkness. "Illuminate this darkness!" I chanted, casting a light spell and allowing me to see better.

"Sakura?" a familiar voice asked. I didn't turn to see who it was and cast an ice spell on the large beast. It dodged once more "Damn," I mumbled. I decided to cast a spell that surrounded itself around the target, never missing. The spell enveloped the monster in a ring of light, slowly forming a pillar of light around it. Once it was done, it striked, I grinned. When the light was gone, the monster came out, unscathed. "What?" I asked. It countered with a spell itself, launching multiple beams of fire around me at once. I figured I couldn't dodge and cast a protection spell. The fire collided with my protection spell and it broke, sending me back into a tree. "What is this…?" I said weakly. "Stop!" a voice said, a light spell flew at the creature. It was the boy. When I took a closer look, I couldn't believe it.

"Matthew!" I said in amusement "Why are you here!?" "I-I don't know, but I can't just stand here and do nothing!" he bravely replied. I recovered from the shock and unsheathed a hidden katana. "Matthew, got a weapon? I don't think magical attacks work on this monster," I asked. "Yeah," he replied, unsheathing a longsword. It was already hard enough to get close to the beast and magical attacks didn't work, clever. I ran at the beast, avoiding and slashing whenever it exploited a weakness. Matthew mostly distracted the creature, also slashing whenever it turned to me. After a while, it finally fell. It dissipated into black ashes. Matthew and I took a breath of relief. "Now that that's done, can you tell me how you got here?" I questioned.

* * *

I took Matthew with me to the guild. I pushed the doors open "Listen up, everyone!" Everyone stopped fighting and turned to look at me. "Hey Sakura, who's that?" Lucy asked pointing at Matthew. "Mind explaining for yourself?" I asked my brother, he shook his head. "Umm…" he stammered "I'm Sakura's half-brother, Matthew." Everyone gasped, as if they haven't gasped enough since they first saw me. "So this is the Matthew I've been hearing so much about!" Natsu rest his arm on Matthew's shoulder. "Matthew!? But how!?" Mother asked, in shock. "According to Sakura's theory, I came from the future," he responded. Mother slowly approached him, eyes crying tears of joy "Matthew…my boy…" she hesitated. "Yeah, Mom?" he asked, slightly confused. Mother hugged him. "Aww…" I could hear Erza whisper. Matthew hugged back, which only deepened the intensity of the moment. I smiled softly. When they broke apart, Natsu said "Hey Matthew, fight me!" "Okay…?" Matthew replied, I cleared some tables to avoid "table-injury."

"One…" Makarov started. "Two…" Natsu and Matthew glared so hard at eachother, I swear I saw sparks. "Three!" they dashed at one another. Matthew cast a beam of fire at Natsu, "Too bad, I can eat fire!" Natsu attempted to inhale the flames, but couldn't and the attack hit him. "Don't forget that I'm a god!" Matthew stated. "Oh right, thanks for the reminder!" he replied. Natsu engulfed his fist in flames and jabbed at Matthew. Matthew dodged with ease and countered with an ice spell. "Place your bets!" I heard Erza yell. "A little late, aren't you?" I asked "Never," she denied. Already, people were placing their bets on Matthew. I looked back towards the two. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu yelled, as soon as Matthew was about to dodge, he slipped on a "convenient" banana peel. Matthew lie there, sprawled out on the guild floors. Natsu had won. People groaned as they gave their money to the ones that supported Natsu.

"Matthew, this might sound like a completely random question, but…where did you learn your magic?" I asked my brother. "…From you," he replied "Wait, how?" I asked.

"Well, you stayed and taught me some."

"I stayed?"

"Well not exactly, you visited me every few weeks and taught me."

"So you're saying you hail from an alternate timeline?"

I had been going through a lot of theory stuff, I can finally put it to use. "Well if you say so, I guess," Matthew said with uncertainty. "Well, I certainly haven't visited little you, so I'm guessing that you're not the one from this timeline," I explained to him. "Oh, okay," Matthew nodded in understanding. "Hey Sakura," we were interrupted by Natsu's voice.

"We need you to do some more high-pay jobs."

* * *

**I'm so tired… Ugh… Hey, two updates, one week. Ugh… I couldn't even think straight today. All I have to say, too tired to write an actual ending A/N. I also apologise if there are any mistakes, I am writing at 12:45 AM.**


	12. Start of a Job

**I've gotten a few reviews on how this fanfic is rushed. I'm sorry! Gods, I'm trying to slow it down, but that means I'd probably have to add in more chapters before the already present ones. And I don't want to do that or have the time to. Also, let's reply. By the way, I just had to reply to Maddie's.**

**And I apologise to everyone how late I have been updating. I'll try to update sooner. However, I'm working on some other stuff:**

**FDsecretart - Yep. just had to do it. *Bangs head against wall for no exact reason***

**no.1 RWBY LOVER - Don't worry, I won't question your name. Also, thanks!**

**Maddie - Yes, I know I'm not telling who's narrating, I'm rewriting them that way. It's to actually find out on your own. I just didn't feel comfortable putting who's narrating, for some reason. And yes, I know it's rushed. Bear with me, I'm trying to slow it down with some fillers.**

**Disclaimer: Hiro Trollshima owns Fairy Tail. Oh, that reminds me! Are the shipping wars still going on?**

* * *

"Why don't you do it yourself?" Sakura replied calmly. "Because I'm too lazy right now and the no job policy," Natsu said. "What?!" said an astounded Sakura "Well, at least you're honest." "Hey Natsu, I think we should cut her some slack, I mean, she just reunited with her mother and her sibling" Lucy said. "Well, finally!" **(A/N: Sakura's had enough screen time for now)** the goddess commented. "Oh, high-paying jobs?" Matthew asked excitedly. "Yeah, wanna do some?" Natsu asked, "Only if someone's going with me. That monster kind of gave me anxiety." Natsu looked at Sakura with pleading eyes, "Fine..." Sakura surrendered. "Alright, what are we gonna do?" Matthew asked curiously.

"Kill a few things, kill some more, and kill even more."

"Like, how much is more?"

"Maybe a thousand, maybe two thousand."

"WAIT!" Sakura intervened, "You plan on going just like that? Aren't you going to bring someone else?" Lucy raised her hand, "I'll go!" she said with a determined expression plastered on her face. "Yeah, don't worry, Sakura. I think we're just fine," Matthew assured, disregarding the possible danger. "Matthew..." Sakura said in a stern voice. "Well, gotta go!" Matthew said dashing out of the guild doors, pulling Natsu and Lucy behind him. "Ugh... What was that about, Matthew?" Natsu moaned. "Uh, yeah, can't you tell by that voice?" said a rhetorical Matthew, sighing in relief. "So, where are we going?" Lucy asked.

"Somewhere in the mountains." Natsu commented.

"And what's in the mountains?"

"Some monster, no problem for us. Say, why don't you support us or something? Maybe summon Taurus."

"Wait, you're a Celestial Spirit mage?" Matthew asked obliviously. "Yep," Lucy simply replied. "Well, could you possibly summon two at once?" Matthew thought of strategies if she could **(A/N: Too much FE:A, Tana)**. "Well actually, I can," Lucy stated "What do you have in mind?" "Well, you could summon two which would help a lot more than just one, since there'll probably swarms of enemies surrounding us " Matthew explained. "So, you and I could fight on opposite sides while Lucy's spirits could fight on the other two?" Natsu asked, understanding his thoughts. "Yep," replied the bluenette.

* * *

**I know, I know, it's short as fuck. I just needed to let people know I'm not dead. This fanfic was in dire need of an update. I promise the next one will be longer. I discontinued two of my fanfics and put another on a long hiatus which will last until this one is finished. The others are either one-shots or something random. As I said, I have a lot of things to do. I have to finish one before the other, shame on me for thinking I could handle so much fanfics at once. I have a very good plot (in my opinion) on a fanfic (not Fairy Tail). And since I have to finish one before the other, I need to finish this up.**

**PLOT SPOILERS!**

**Want spoilers,**** bro?**

**Seriously?**

**You sure?**

**Scroll.**

**It's not too big.**

**Okay?**

**Alright.**

**In the end Lisanna will turn good. A nice twist on a cliché plot, eh?**


	13. Relentless

**I know the last chapter was short, but again, I needed you people to know I'm not dead and that this fanfic isn't discontinued. Anyways, I don't have much to say. But I do have excuses for my late update. I have two betas, look at my profile, I'm a beta reader and I'm doing two. I'm working on a drabble fanfic, sure the "chapters" will be short on that, but it still takes time. **

**Also, I've been putting too much Fire Emblem: Awakening in here, huh? For any of you that may know about the topic. Blue-haired strategist = Chrom!Morgan. But when I think of him in robes (mentioned in this chapter) I picture Riku Furude (Not to be confused with Rika Furude) from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. **

**Starting from today, I will write longer chapters (longer is better, right?) and update earlier. Or at least try to. And I'm still updating previous chapters. And my betas are faster, so that's a relief. By the way, I'm not following Fairy Tail's plot anymore. The fillers made me stop. Again, too much Fried Emblem. Too much Fried Emblem, I mean Fire Emblem.**

**YEAH. I'M CHROBIN TRASH.**

**TRASH PRIDE.**

**These notes are old.**

**Disclaimer: Hiro ****Trollshima ****owns Fairy Tail.**

* * *

As the small group of mages ran to the mountains, they resisted the urge to stop and buy the foreign sweets that the towns they passed by supplied. Matthew felt his stomach rumble.

"Can't we stop for one second? I'm starving. And why are we going on foot? Ever think of that?" said Matthew. Lucy nodded in agreement.

"Well, just eat water or something."

"Gods don't function like Slayers..."

Natsu stopped running when he realised he was hungry and that there was no fire around.

"...Well I guess we could stop here," he said his hand groping towards a nearby bakery.

"Well just as long as we don't stay forever. Got some money?" asked Matthew, digging through his pockets.

"Nope..." Lucy paused and a mischievous grin found it's way on her face. She summoned Loke from the Celestial Spirit World.

"Hey Loke, got any money?" Loke dug through his pockets and pulled out some money.

Natsu's eyes sparkled with greed, he took the money and ran off into the bakery. "..." Loke stared wide-eyed as his money was stolen.

Natsu walked out, crêpes and pies occupied his arms. Matthew took a pie and bit into it, Lucy did the same. Natsu happily shoveled the rest into his mouth.

After they were done, they took a bus that stopped in a town that was near the mountain (how convenient). Once they got out, Lucy felt a chill creeping up her back.

"It's c-cold." Matthew looked at her.

"Well, maybe you should've worn something warmer than that," he pointed at her skimpy outfit. "Well you don't exactly have the best fashion sense either," Lucy countered.

"Hey, I'll have you know this was my sister's!" said Matthew, looking at the white robes he was wearing.

"Hurry up, you two," Natsu called.

"But what about-" Lucy placed a hand on her stomach. Matthew caught up to Natsu.

"Wait up!" yelled Lucy. "I'm sure you can run a bit faster even when you're pregnant," Natsu replied, insensitively.

"Woah, you're pregnant?! You sure don't look like it!" Matthew said, shocked.

"Oh well, I don't exactly have an explanation for that. Ask your sister, she's the one with all the 'new body' shenanigans," said Lucy.

Lucy summoned Horologium, to keep her warm while Natsu and Matthew dashed ahead. They effortlessly killed weak enemies. Natsu just spat fire almost literally everywhere. Matthew poked his enemies with his longsword and they collapsed on the ground, dead. Lucy did her part too, she summoned Virgo and had her use her weakest attack. Endless amounts of weak, but annoying monsters came after them. That is, until a surprise horde of tougher ones came along, one of them wore a black cloak, as if it was the leader. At that point, they had to use more powerful attacks.

Natsu focused his fire, rather than spreading it all over the place, Matthew actually used technique in his swordmanship. Lucy summoned Taurus and had him attack along with Virgo. The creatures disappeared into purple ashes upon defeat, but one that Lucy had injured - the one with the cloak - had left behind red stains in the snow. Blood.

Natsu stopped for a moment and checked the figure under the torn black rags while Matthew watched his back. There was a man that looked to be in his late-thirties.

"H-Help..." the man said weakly. After only a second of lying there, he suddenly slashed at Natsu with a well-concealed silver dagger.

"How am I supposed to help you if you're attacking me?" asked Natsu, dodging the dagger.

The man looked at Natsu, his eyes looking as if he was in a trance. He was doing it against his will and he could only speak what he wanted to. "Gods dammit Natsu, do something to help him!" Lucy finally said.

"What should I do? Punch him?!" asked an annoyed Natsu. "Just let me do it." Matthew walked over to them, held his sword by the blade and whacked the man with the hilt, knocking him out. "Lucy, watch over him."

After the hordes of monsters ended, and they finally fulfilled the request, they claimed the reward and headed to Lucy's house. There, they tended and waited for the mysterious man to wake up.

"Ugh..." the man groaned as he woke up. "Oh, you're finally awake," said Lucy, relief in her voice. "Where am I? What am I doing here? Who was that man?" he asked.

"Woah, one question at a time. You're in her house," Natsu pointed at Lucy "because the blue-haired smartass over here whacked you in the head and you suffered some cuts and bruises from the blonde." Matthew and Lucy smiled nervously.

"So, what's your name?" Matthew tried to divert the subject. "Ryan," he simply replied **(A/N: Finally, I didn't use a Japanese name)**.

"And what about your surname?"

"Don't remember."

"Alright, so apparently you were leading some monsters against your will. Do you remember anything before you lost control or something?" asked Lucy.

"I-I remember this guy, I don't remember his name. Kind of strange considering I was a slave to him for a year or two," Ryan replied. "Well, what did he look like? If you could remember," Natsu asked curiously. "Well, he was a brunette or something. He liked to flirt, I think. He was a major heartbreaker, though."

"Okay...? I honestly have no idea who this guy is," said Natsu. "Anyways, you'll probably need a place to stay," Lucy started, "You could come to the guild with us."

"Guild? What guild?"

"Fairy Tail," Matthew simply replied.

The group - along with Ryan - started to head back to Fiore. Not without eating first, of course.

* * *

"So, Sakura," said Erza. "Yeah? What?" Sakura lazily replied, reading a book.

"You always wear those robes, have you ever considered armour?"

"Huh? Nope. I'm perfectly fine with this. Besides, I'm not exactly the physical person like Matthew is," answered Sakura.

"Well, try something out! You know requip magic, don't you? Why don't you use it?" suggested a slightly shocked Erza.

"It's not my style, I stick to magic that doesn't rely on armour. But I guess I could use it for a day or two..." at that statement, Erza's eyes lit up. "Which set of armour will you use?! Will it be Heaven's Wheel?!"

"I'm just going to use some standard armour, that isn't too heavy or restricting. Just something that boosts my magic's power," the light in Erza's eyes dimmed.

Sakura simply changed into a set of steel armour, leaving her upper arms uncovered, "Well, how is it?" she asked. "It looks great!" Erza fawned "I've never seen you wear armour! This is like the first time anyone has ever seen it!"

"Actually, that is true. I've never worn a suit of armour before. Even though it's lightweight, it feels heavy."

"Well then, I'm the first one to ever see it!"

The doors burst open. "We're back!" Natsu yelled. People were more intent on staring at Ryan, wondering who he was and what he was doing at Fairy Tail. Finally someone said something, "Who's that?" asked a random person.

"Oh, it's just some random guy named Ryan, we found him on our job," Natsu replied sitting at a table. Matthew walked over to Sakura, "So what's with the armour?" he asked. Sakura simply looked at Erza. Suddenly Matthew understood, "Oh, okay."

"So, about this Ryan person..." said Sakura.

"Yeah, he was kind of fighting us against his will," Matthew explained. "Oh yeah, Lucy said she's pregnant but she doesn't look like it, mind explaining?"

"Just a condition of her new body..." Sakura lazily replied. "Anyways, how much money did you get?" she diverted the subject. Natsu threw a large bag filled with jewel on to a table. Erza saw the money and her eyes gleamed with greed, she took a handful of jewel and ran off with it when nobody was looking.

"So Ryan, or whoever, do you have anything you'd like to share?" questioned Sakura. "I'm not sure if it'll be too significant. But I was a slave to this flirty brunette, and he made me fight them," he pointed at Team Natsu.

"Well, I don't have any idea who this skirt-chaser is, I'll look into it once I get some sleep," Sakura rested her head on a table and tried her best to go to sleep.

Erza came back into the guild, shoving spoonfuls of strawberry cake into her mouth and surprisingly, not choking on any.

"So Matthew, have you even joined Fairy Tail yet? Or are you just here for the jobs?" asked Natsu. "Haven't joined, better do it now," Matthew replied as he scrambled off to Makarov's office. Celeste watched her son and sighed, "They grow up so fast..."

* * *

Makarov heard a knock on his door, "Come in," he replied. Matthew opened the door and walked into the office, "I'd like to join."

"Oh, aren't you the goddess' half-brother? I haven't been following this stuff, really," Makarov said. "Okay, so where and what colour?"

"Hm..." Matthew thought, "Right shoulder and...I guess a dark blue." Matthew lifted his sleeve, Makarov stamped the Fairy Tail insignia.

"Jeez, what is it with you people and the shoulders or anywhere near the shoulders?" Makarov sighed. Matthew went all smartass.

"Well the neck is a bit absurd, the legs are pretty weird for males, the forehead is-" Makarov interrupted Matthew's sentence, "Good reasoning...I guess, but can you go now?" Matthew nodded his head, "Sure." He headed downstairs.

"Lies, lies, all lies!" muttered Sakura while she was sleeping. Lucy had heard her, "Woah Sakura, you okay?" she asked. Sakura woke up, "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just reliving some bad memories."

Sakura began to think about the man Ryan mentioned. "Hey, Ryan," she called, "Are you sure you don't remember anything else about Mr. Skirt-chaser?"

"Absolutely, positively," Ryan replied. "Well, nevermind it. As long as he's not harming anyone, I guess we can leave the situation be for now," said Sakura. "Sister! Sister!" said Matthew out of nowhere, "I finally joined!"

"So, two gods, one guild. Did mother join?"

"Yeah, if she's staying here with us, why not?"

"So, three gods in the guild, eh?" said Natsu. "Most unstoppable guild now," Gray intervened.

"It seems you three have become automatic S-class mages, correct?" asked Erza. Matthew nodded.

"So, anything major going on in Magnolia, or Fiore in general?" asked a bored Sakura. "Well, we have the Grand Magic Games coming up soon," Lucy replied.

"Oh?" Matthew asked, hungry for more information. "You've never heard of it? Well, whatever. Guilds participate and whichever guild wins is deemed the strongest guild. Unfortunately, the dreaded Sabertooth is currently the strongest." Lucy felt a tiny bit of anger when she thought of Sting.

"Well, with us, Fairy Tail is sure to earn number one!" said Matthew.

"Oh, Sakura you said something about not being physical earlier, what did you mean by that? This information could probably help out in the Games," suggested Erza.

"Oh, that. I meant that Matthew pokes his enemies with his longsword, while I rely on magical attacks. My mother is balanced on both," Sakura replied. "Well, we could definetely use that. We need a strategist now," Erza said.

"Oh, I'm good at that stuff!" Matthew said excitedly **(A/N - Fandom:** **Tana...)**,"Put a mix of people into one group. One physical, one magical, one both, and some kind of healer." Erza nodded, "That'd seem logical..."

"We could probably have a magical attack another magical with the same going for physical. The balanced one should protect the healer if they can't fight or they are too weak. Even if they can, a healer is important, so they should be protected either way," said Sakura.

"This stuff is all too confusing, what are you two even saying?" asked Natsu. "Strategy," the siblings replied at once. Natsu just went and ate, while the others blabbered their nonsense "strategy."

"The biggest choice here is who to bring along..." said Matthew in deep thought. "Well, we'd gladly bring your family of three along," Gray said.

"Then Natsu with his blessing of "always win no matter what" thing," said a logical Sakura. The siblings went on about their strategies, guild members gathering and listening intently on what they were saying, even though it was confusing.

"Lucy, because she's able to summon multiple spirits."

"Gray, because he's somewhat strong and balanced."

Sakura and Matthew kept on choosing people using logic. Once they were done, the guild members were sure their brain had falled out mid-strategizing. It became night quickly and everyone decided to just sit back and escape from their stress and such. MiraJane and Kinana were extremely busy with all the orders and refills.

"Hey Sakura, do you have anywhere to live?" asked Lucy. "Oh, of course I do. I have a place in Spirit Woods. You know, that place is uninterrupted so it's quite relaxing," Sakura replied. "Well, instead of sleeping on the tables in this wreck guild, I'm heading over right now."

"Night," Lucy waved as Sakura disappeared.

* * *

"You don't belong here," a voice said.

"W-What...?" a certain young girl dreaded the sentence.

"You are a disgrace to all, I was embarassed whenever I met with _him_."

"Why are you saying this? I thought we had such an unbreakable bond... Ever since you met _him_, the so-called "unbreakable" was broken... Why?" the girl's eyes filled with tears.

"Die. Vanish yourself from this world; from existence. Lift the burden of you off everyone's back," a cloaked figure appeared, holding a large ceremonial knife. It was made of gold, it's blade decorned with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. The knife looked so painfully sharp, as if it could tear through anything in it's path.

The young girl was suddenly restrained to a cross by chains so tight, it made marks on her skin. The figure raised the knife high and brung down the knife in the blink of an eye.

...

Nothing but darkness was in the field of the girl's vision.

A strange light shone, a woman - not obscured at all - appeared and walked towards her.

"It was all a nightmare. You know all of us love you..." she said. "Then why did I-" the girl said in a shaky voice.

"Just your fears. Just paranoia. It's not real."

"No, you left me... Lies, lies, all lies!" the girl repetitively screamed.

* * *

Sakura suddenly woke up, gasping for air as she tried to calm down. She'd been having the same nightmare over and over again, not telling anyone about it. However, she hadn't done a good job at concealing her sleep-talking.

"Sister, you all right?!" asked a paniced voice.

"Don't worry about me, it was just a nightmare..." Sakura waved her hand submissively, "Go back to bed, Matthew."

"Well, tell me about it. Because you were mumbling to yourself all-night."

* * *

**All right! Finally finished this chapter. You guys have no idea what I have in store for the plot, unless you're good at that stuff. In case you forgot by the end the "Lies, lies, all lies!" part appeared in the middle of the chapter or something. I'm not going to spoil, this time. I clearly updated later because this was unnaturally long than what I usually have the time to type up for. I'm gonna be late again on the next chapter. A close friend of mine recently had one of their relatives (grandfather, if I'm not mistaken) die yesterday. It's pretty sad considering the way my friend described him made him seem like such a good guy, I feel quite sad after hearing the story. Anyways, see you all next chapter.**


	14. Fate: Deception's Power

Welcome back followers and hello newcomers! After roughly six months of so-called "discontinuation", I just got this random motivation one Sunday morning! You see, I've been doing orginal works, my own characters, my own timelines and whatever the hell else you can think of that's unique to original crap! Also, there's some other reasons...ahem. Sorry if the person who was adopting it is reading.

I am extemely gullible, and believe it or not, I didn't check on that person's stories before giving permission. I dunno, I didn't like them. Unnecessary capitalization, lack of proper punctuation, text walls... Gods! And they generally weren't responding to the messages (Not making a PMS joke) I sent asking a bunch of important things.

The words per chapter will generally stay the same, if I don't take up a thousand writing cheesy romance. Oh, did I mention I wrote cheesy romance? Well now you know. I personally think my writing has improved, that's probably the reason for my motivation.

And by the way, I haven't been keeping up with neither the manga nor the anime, so stuff I use in here might be dated. By "might", I mean "will".

"I must appease my fans." - Tana Satou 2k15

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does. If I did, it wouldn't have so much archetypes of shonen.

* * *

"A flirtatious brunette, eh?" Sakura said to herself, anyone could tell she was lost in her thoughts. "Any ideas, sister?" she heard a certain voice ask her from nowhere. An image suddenly popped into Sakura's mind, as she started to speak again.

"I don't know, I'm thinking about your father for some reason..."

Slightly shocked at her answer, Matthew threw his hands down onto the table beside them. "Do you really think my father was such a bad person?" he asked. "...even in this other universe you speak of?" Sighing, Sakura looked up at her brother. "Calm down there, I'm still talking about this world and that heaven," she assured him.

Despite this, the uncertain look on his face remained. "But-" Before Matthew could finish his sentence, Sakura put her hand up as if she didn't wamt any more questions. Resigning from the thought of Maxwell being the cause of all the abnormal situations, she stood up. "Rile! ...Or whatever your name is!" she called for the person that was previously a bandit against his will. She could hear Matthew whisper to her.

"Ryan," he corrected. Sakura whispered back, "Shut up."

"Yes, Ms. Goddess?" said a husky voice. "You want more information on that one guy? Sorry, but no can do." With a groan, the expression on Sakura's face turned from a casual look into a disappointed frown. She replied in an annoyed, "Whatever."

The guild doors flew open, clashing with the walls behind it. The rusty brass hinges on the doors looked as if they were about to snap any minute. "Sakura!" a loud voice yelled. The blunette looked at the source of the voice, only to see a certain pink-haired dragon slayer.

"Yes? What do you-" Sakura paused her sentence as she saw her mother, her arms slung over Natsu and Lucy's shoulders, no sleeves. A dark purple creeped up inside of Celeste's skin in a pattern smilar to a vein. The mysterious purple stretched from her right hand to her shoulder. As it moved ever so slowly, a pained look appeared on her face.

Matthew was the first to say anything. "Mother!" he cried, "What's wrong with her?!"

"Lay her down!" demanded Sakura. They set her mother down on a bench, using Natsu's scarf as a sort of pillow. Soon after, a swarm of guild members crowded around the group. Taking in a deep breath and releasing it, Sakura positioned her hands over the vein-like object. She closed her eyes and started to focus on something. Soon after, a faint green light emitted from her palms lessening the deep hue of purple on Celeste's arm. Sakura began to chant.

"_Ekarii ectan na te ona tano..._" she uttered in a steady voice. As her words dragged on, Celeste inhaled a sharp breath, clearly still in pain. The light grew more intense as Sakura's words became faster. Eventually, she came to a halt as she ended the last words of the incantation at a normal pace. Sakura opened her eyes, only to see that her efforts were mostly in vain. "Mother...! What happened?!"

Celeste opened her right eye and with a choked voice, she spoke. "I guess you were right, Sakura... I should have never trusted _him_..." was all she said. Her daughter's eyes widened at her sentence, "It was Maxwell, wasn't it...?" Celeste simply nodded.

Matthew suddenly spoke. "I'm sorry to have doubted you, sister," he apologized, his head slightly lowered.

"Oh right! I nearly forgot!" the retired thief interjected. "I saw a prisoner of that one man. She also looked to have this vein thing. When I saw her, it was up to her throat. It kind of looked like she was being choked." Sakura suddenly whipped her head around towards Ryan, "What else?"

Ryan simply shrugged in response, "Dunno." Matthew's expression turned blank.

"Sister, I'm still sorry for doubting you..." he said quickly, clearly flustered.

"No worries, no worries," Sakura replied passively. "But back onto the topic, we need to find that fuckboy of a god and-" Ryan suddenly burst out into laughter, interrupting her sentence.

"A swearing goddess? Damn good at it too," he said jokingly. Sakura gave him a look that told him "Shut up."

"Anyways..." Sakura continued. "I'll use some magic to track Maxwell down, but I need everyone to shut the hell up if we want it as most effective as possible-"

Once again interrupting her sentence, Natsu screamed to the entire guild. "SHUT UP, EVERYONE!" he yelled in a rowdy voice, immediately silencing the noisy conversations between the vast amount of people.

Following this, Sakura slowly closed her eyes. She inhaled deep breaths and carefully exhaled them as she held her hands in front of her. A soft, white light formed a sphere-like mist above her hands. Inside was a swirl of grey and white, slowly flowing in a single direction like a calm river. As more time passed, the mist grew denser and the shades within it, darker. The flow became so fast that it was like looking out of a window while in a vehicle. Unexpectedly, Sakura suddenly spoke.

"Done," she said, opening her eyes. She slowly put her hands to her side. "O gods and goddesses of this world, I beg of you to assist me in finding Maxwell, the god of deception."

There was a brief pause before she got a reply. "Oh it's Sakura, isn't it? Well, haven't seen you in a long time. How does it feel to be the almighty empress of the humans?" asked a feminine voice, clearly mocking the bluenette goddess.

Sighing, Sakura spoke in a sloghtly serious tone, "Just shut up and help me find Maxwell. After all, I heard that your daughter was being tricked by him."

"Huh? How do you know about this?!"

"Well duh, I'm involved in every single thing about Maxwell. What, did the gossip not spread to you yet?"

"Alright, fine, fine. As long as you tell me more once you're done screwing around with your father, I'll help you."

"Don't call him my father."

The voice faded as the mist turned into a dark grey colour. A blurry image formed, its features becoming more defined by the second. Dark cells crowded with both humans and deities alike littered the image. The view zoomed past the prisons as if locating the trickster, only for the mist to vanish.

Sakura gasped. "What?" she tried quickly recalling the magic. "How did he block navigation?"

"Wait, what?" asked a confused Matthew.

In a worried tone, Sakura replied. "Maxwell has masked his prescence from any outsider. I know he's the trickster god and whatnot, but I have more experience in magic. How is he able to block even my magic?"

A pained cry quickly drew the attention of the confused guild. The purple magic on Celeste's arm, slowly turned into a snake-like figure. Hissing, it coiled around her arm and tightened its grip, its fangs appearing to leak a black venom which spilled onto the ground. Despite looking menacing, the fluid immediately disappeared as it made contact with the wood.

A wave of confusion washed over Sakura as her eyes widened.

"Oh no...what are we to do now..'?"

* * *

In case you are wondering, no, there is not a translation for the chant in the beginning of the chapter. I just edoted a bunch of words. For example the first "word" is 'Ekarii' which means nothing. I hope. I just combined the Japanese words 'hikari' (meaning 'light') and 'inori' (meaning 'prayer').

The second word is 'ectan' which doesn't mean anything. Just some edited Latin. The Latin word that it is derived from is 'extendo' which is apparently 'extend' (But I searched for 'reach'. Close enough). Just to sum it up, it's a very rough sentence that uses mainly edited Japanese, but a little edited Latin. Intention was something similar to "Light extends to your soul". Yes, I know I have terrible Japanese grammar, but I don't take classes. I'm like, Class -1 in Japanese lessons. I mean seriously, I overuse "anata" when thinking of certain characters speaking in Japanese to one another.

Also, I may or may not be doing, yep, you said it: More rewrites! Have you ever heard of rewritten rewritten chapters? I certainly haven't. (MORE ROMANCE!) But yeah, I probably will edit in some more romance because I write so much of it. I ship two of my own characters really hard, so I developed a lot of shit from that.


	15. Pieces of the Puzzle

**EDITED NOTES:**

You guys don't know how much leaps and bounds I'm going through to rewrite this. I actually have to _read _this piece of junk. I'm cringing so much that I'm shivering.

* * *

"Mother, I know it's a bit much to ask you for ideas..." Sakura whimpered as she leaned over Celeste who was lying in a small bed. "But what are we to do...? I mean, I can't even locate him, and now this magic is just growing worse..."

With a soft grunt, Celeste spoke with a sickly, but soft tone. "Sakura, my dear..." she said. "Reversing the magic cast upon me may not be within your powers, do you remember the curse I told you of?"

Celeste's words awoke a long-forgotten memory within Sakura's mind. Sakura remembered a situation, one almost like the one she was experiencing at the time. Her young self sat anxiously nearby her ill mother. "This is normally just a simple sickness," her mother told her. "But because of a curse I was born with, I can't recover from even minor things like these very easily..."

"But Mother!" Sakura cried out desperately. "I've learned powerful healing magic over the years! Hell, powerful magic in general! So...why can't it help with anything as of now?!" Tears welled up in her eyes and her throat tightened. Her breathing was unsteady as her chest heaved from the uncontrollable short breaths that she inhaled and barely exhaled.

"Damn it all..." Sakura said, her face buried in her hands. "DAMN IT ALL!"

Outside of the small room the mother and her daughter were in, a blue-haired boy asked, "Will Sister be alright...?"

A blonde nearby him replied, "Hopefully she will be... I can't even begin to imagine how she feels right now..."

"I wonder if she'll be able to reverse whatever Father put on Mother..."

"Hey," Lucy tried to initiate a conversation that wasn't related to the current situation. "Normally people like you wouldn't even call a terrible person like Maxwell their father, even if it is actually their father or not. But you still do, can I ask why that is?"

Matthew sighed as he tried to take his mind off of Sakura and Celeste. "I don't know why I do, to be completely honest. It just kind of seems like an instinct. Even though a majority of Father's smiles are simply his tricks, everybody smiles genuinely, even if it's just once in their lifetime, right? I remember seeing a true one; not just an illusion. When I was born, he showed one to me, and I continue to remember it. I'm sure somewhere in my heart, there is still a tiny bit of love for Father."

Lucy smiled as she closed her eyes. "Wow, some inspiring words you have there. Personally, I think you would totally be qualified for a speech in front of the entire Fiore."

Matthew put on a large grin as he scratched the back of his head in slight embarassment. "Heh heh, you think so?"

* * *

The sun shone brightly in Magnolia. A calm breeze swept across the streets as an uneventful and relaxed day continued.

"Ah, it feels good to finally get some fresh air," said Sakura as she inhaled a deep breath.

"Hey Sakura, you shouldn't force yourself to stay in Celeste's room. I'm sure she'll manage fine with the support of the other guild members," Lucy advised the goddess. Smiling, Sakura outstretched her arms as she aimlessly walked around on the streets.

"Sakura, Lucy, got any money?" suddenly asked Natsu, his stomach rumbling out of hunger.

Clutching his stomach, Matthew supported the dragon slayer. "I do have to admit, I'm kind of hungry too," he admitted sheepishly. He checked the pockets in his robes, only to find that a mere two hundred jewels lie in them. "Not even enough to buy a half-eaten cake..."

"Fine, fine." Sakura sighed exasperatedly as she blindly walked in the direction of a restaurant. Eventually, they were only a few shops away from a restaurant, but what lie ahead of them was simply unexpected.

The metallic ring of swords clashing resounded through the air.

"Speak, you!" a voice yelled that anyone could tell was of someone whose wrath had been incurred. "What do you planning on doing to her?!" Crowds of people were gathered around the scene, they all stared at the sight ahead of them, though they couldn't do a thing. Ahead of the four that had just arrived was a brown-haired girl, appearing to be in her early adult years. She fought with a being that resembled a little girl. Though not looking like anything special, the aura surrounding the being was menacing; capable of sending shivers down anyone's spine.

The woman's attire resembled Sakura's greatly, though slightly more simple. A deep scarlet stained her torn sleeves and drops of blood constantly fell to the ground. In her hands was a steel longsword, strange markings engraved on its blade. The threatening prescence however, wore a plain white sundress and its long black hair was tied up by a small red ribbon. She looked innocent, but if one were to glance at just the two sheaths at her sides, they could tell that she was not just a simple little girl. In each of her hands was a greatsword, blood splattered all over the large blades.

"Hmph, do you really think I would ever answer a question from a worm like you?" the girl asked. Her voice was oddly deep, it sounded as if she had stolen the voice of a mature woman. "But for once, I suppose I shall answer. Because I'd be delighted to see your reaction when you watch the poor girl being tortured, all because you couldn't save her."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Is that really...Arania? the goddess Arania?"

"You wouldn't dare...!" the injured girl yelled. In the blink of an eye, she charged towards the being supposedly known as Arania. The markings on her longsword glowed with an odd red light as she struck the shoulder of the creature before her. Arania cried out in pain as she did not expect that the girl would land a blow on her. A fiery blaze engulfed Arania's shoulder as she staggered back, dropping the heavy-looking sword in her one hand.

"Tch, such a bothersome girl..." Arania muttered under her breath. She let out a long chuckle, but her voice rised to that of a young child's as she did so. She spoke, but this time with a much higher-pitched voice.

"Astrid," she said with a voice that was still clearly not her own. "Don't worry about me! You should go meet up with Big Bro. I'm sure he'll help you with getting me back!"

The girl known as Astrid paused for a brief moment. "N―No... Priscilla... Is it really her...?" But by the time she finally could realize it was a trick, Arania was already charging towards her, but this time, with only one of her swords. "How naive! How could someone like you fall for something like that?!"

"Enough!" Sakura yelled as she intervened. With her own sword in her hands, she sent Arania's only remaining weapon flying through the air. The blade had barely sliced off one of the spectator's ears, leaving him in shock as the blade of the sinister claymore clashed with the cobblestone, only about a foot away from his feet. Astrid stood in absolute silence as she stared at her savior. Sakura pointed the blade of her broadsword at Arania. She walked up to the defenseless goddess and ran the blade through her head and swiftly pulled it back out.

"Heh heh, it's too late you know," Arania said as her legs started to disintegrate into black ashes that blew away in a strong gust of wind. "Lord Maxwell's thirst for power is growing. He's already becoming so desperate that he's been preying on not just gods and goddesses, but mortals too." Before she could completely disappear, she was able to utter one more sentence.

"I shall see you again if you ever decide to interfere with Lord Maxwell's plans again―" Arania was cut short as she was no longer there anymore. Her greatswords immediately turned a deep hue of purple and shattered into fragments that also began to decay.

There was a long moment of silence until Sakura whispered to herself, "Mother...he's stealing your power, isn't he...?"

* * *

"So are you sure you're fine? You kind of looked like you were bleeding really badly back there," Lucy contemplated.

"Don't worry. I know some strong healing magic, and besides, bleeding is nothing," the woman assured.

Sakura sighed as she lazily threw a fry into her mouth. "So, you're name's Astrid correct?" She nodded. "Is this Priscilla girl like, your little sister or something?"

Immediately, Astrid's face flushed. "N―No! Not at all! S―She's just the little sister of someone dear to me..."

"Oh? Who would that be?"

"No one!"

"Is it a guy?"

Astrid sighed, giving up. "Well...you caught me..." As soon as she finished her sentence, she heard laughter and giggles coming from all around her. This time, her face flushed even deeper than it had before.

Matthew calmed his laughter and spoke, "Well, just so you know, I hope you and whomever end up together!"

"Anyways... Astrid, do you mind telling us what happened before we arrived?" Sakura asked curiously, a small part of her believed that there was more than just Arania that linked to Maxwell.

Astrid lowered her head as she reminisced on what had happened. "As I said before, Priscilla is the little sister of someone dear to me. She decided to take me to Magnolia for some reason. Probably just to tease me about her older brother, but I'm sure there's more to it than that. Anyways, Priscilla suddenly vanished without any trace. One moment she's by my side, the next, she's nowhere to be found. I began to notice something strange and sooner or later, I cross blades with that little girl. I'm wondering if she's really the one behind this, though. She is, isn't she?"

All Sakura could do was nod. "Tell me, can Priscilla use magic?"

"Only a little bit, why?"

Sakura was slowly beginning to pick up the some of the pieces of the puzzle, and Matthew had begun to as well. "Astrid," he said. "It is possible that Father is trying to lure you into his traps. According to Arania, the girl you fought, Father is growing hungry for power and is seeking it from both deities and mortals. And you seem to display strong potential, in both magic and swordsmanship. He may be trying to do something here by kidnapping Priscilla."

Sakura added. "Arania also suggested that you bring her brother to fight alongside you, can he also use magic?"

In deep thought, Astrid replied after a small pause. "Of course he can, but if your father is seeking more power, then he's the wrong person to be looking for."

Natsu interjected as he was stuffing his face with more food. "That's kind of rude, Astrid. Your husband must have something in him if a goddess wants him with you."

"He's not my spouse nor lover!" Astrid corrected. She continued to think, until, she had a small idea. "But you're right. These are gods and goddesses I'd have to face. And after all, I am just a mortal. Marcus' really protective of me and his true power really does show when he's angry. Do you think it's possible that the gods know all of this and are trying to test us?"

"Oh, so Marcus is his name? But either way, there's a huge chance that Maxwell has a god or goddess that is able to supply him information on his side, along with a good strategist. To enrage this Marcus somehow and use him is most likely their reason for wanting him along with you," advised Sakura.

"Anyways, this is so much strategy talk! Let's get out of here!" Sakura said, yawning. She slammed a satchel of gold coins down on the table and stood up. Matthew, Lucy, and Natsu followed.

"Oh, and make sure to introduce us to this Marcus you speak of sometime. I'm sure we could help out with your relationship."

* * *

**EDITED NOTES:**

...

Can't wait to get a gun permit.

By the way, hopefully you weren't confused by the use of jewels. The currency in Fairy Tail. I might be underming your memory, but hey, Mashima's practically given up on world-building since practically all world-building is already done.


	16. Oddities

**EDITED NOTES: **

This fanfic unedited could be my cringe for Cringe Week.

* * *

"So what ever happened to the Grand Magic Games?" Matthew asked, sighing.

"Well from what I've heard, it's been canceled as a whole," Lucy replied.

Matthew threw his hands down onto the table he sat at. "What? Why?!"

Lucy continued, "With all the tension between the gods and so much new monsters lurking in Fiore, members of the even the strongest guilds have been wiping out trying to defeat the gods."

Matthew suddenly swooped into a stage of deep thought. "Sister and Astrid made it look so easy. Arania is one of the high-ranking goddesses after all. And I'm especially surprised about Astrid, I almost can't believe that her weapon was able injure Arania."

"Hah! You really overestimate such a weak attack, Matthew!" interjected a bold Natsu. "My attacks would have been enough to send that little girl crying to her mother!"

Exasperatedly, Matthew glanced over at Natsu. "And you shouldn't underestimate the gods. I'm sure not even the god slayers I've heard of could injure Arania so severely, much less give the goddess of pain a taste of her own medicine. And you're still just a dragon slayer, even though you are pretty strong."

Natsu's expression turned to one of a somewhat dumbfounded one. "Matthew, try not sounding so smart. It makes it really hard to keep up with you when you do that."

"What? Smart? That wording was really informal!" Matthew argued.

Sakura then appeared beside the table the three were at, a slightly worried look on her face. Immediately, Lucy noticed this and asked, "Did something happen to your mother?" Sakura simply shook her head and replied with an assuring tone.

"No, she's still undergoing that weird magic. I'm thinking about a cure, but since this is god magic, mortals haven't kept records on them. And it's not like I'm very good with herbs or remedies... No, you'll have to visit some of of old 'friends' for that..." Sakura had begun pacing back and forth, and spoke more than she needed too.

Matthew quickly tried to change the subject. "Oh, I forgot to ask. Did you tell Astrid to find us at Fairy Tail?"

Sakura nodded. "I told her that we would most likely be here, and if we weren't, to return sometime."

Matthew decided to try and get another opinion on how a mortal could harm Arania. "Sister, I'm still wondering about Astrid's weapons and magic."

"I'm curious as well. I mean, she was using a steel sword. Not the highest-quality thing out there. Continue."

"Well, I'm sure you remember that most weapons forged by humans can't hurt gods unless certain conditions are met. I did think about the runes on her sword being engraved by a god, but they were easy to translate, even for me."

Interested in the subject, Sakura added an idea. "If even you could read the runes like it was nothing then it is possible that it was her own magic. Or wait, a god could have forged her one...nah. When we meet up with her again, I'm sure we will be able to clear things up."

"Sakura," Lucy intervened. "Do you think it's possible that a more experienced god slayer could harm the gods? And is there any chance that man-made inventions could also do that?"

As if she was trying to remember something, Sakura closed her eyes. "Well of course. Depending on how experienced someone like you is, the more they can screw a god up. Sure, they may be called 'god slayers', but that's really just another way to say you're a badass compared to the average mortal. And about the human inventions, of course. Devices from the older gods have fallen into the hands of the people in this world. The attachments that were meant for extra firepower against gods could also be used to simply harm them."

"I see."

The large doors of Fairy Tail suddenly opened, revealing two people; one, a male and the other, a female. The fights that occurred throughout all of the guild suddenly halted, as anyone could tell the two were not members. Conversations died down in an instant and the ones talking stopped to take a look at the two.

Natsu gave an exaggerated sigh, breaking the deadly silence. "Well isn't this convenient? We're on the topic of Astrid and suddenly, she comes out of nowhere. We must have the power to summon people whenever we talk about them," he said with a stubborn and somewhat obnoxious tone.

Astrid spoke in a slightly strained voice due to how awkward the situation seemed to be. "Where can I find, um...Sakura? and the rest of her group?" Everybody's head turned towards the four that Astrid sought.

"A―All right guys, we're going to be having a really long conversation," Matthew announced. "Uh...just get back to whatever you were doing, I guess."

Everyone had paused confusedly before continuing whatever they had been doing before. Astrid walked up to the group, and the person beside her followed.

"Astrid, do you think all the fights are normal here...?" the male next to her asked.

Before Astrid could speak, Natsu answered for her. "Totally normal here. What exactly did you expect?"

"Well... I don't exactly know what to expect. I've never really been in a guild before."

Matthew interrupted, "So, who is this person?" He leaned in, inspecting the unintroduced male. He had short brown hair and wore plain robes. At his side was a steel longsword, resting in a sheath with many somewhat complex patterns on it.

"Oh, right," Astrid said. She looked to the person by her side, giving him a look which told him to introduce himself.

"I―I'm Marcus..." he simply said, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Natsu interjected, "Right, aren't you like, Astrid's husband or something?"

A blush formed on Marcus and Astrid's faces. "N―No!" they both denied at the same time.

"Anyways, before we continue, I'll do a quick introduction. The smartass with the robes is Matthew, the smartass with the scarf is Natsu, and the blonde is Lucy. And as I'm sure you both know, I'm Sakura," the goddess said.

"But anyways, I'm sure that you have informed Marcus about the incident with Priscilla, correct?" Astrid nodded and Sakura took this as a sign to continue. "Good. Matthew and I wish to know about both of your magic. Tell us, what kind of magic do you use?"

Marcus was the first to speak. "I tend to use light magic, healing magic, and occasionally, sword magic."

Astrid followed after him. "I can use a wide variety of the more basic magic types, though I do lean towards fire and sword magic. Any of the others are quite weak. And as you already know, I can utilize runes."

Nodding her head, Sakura commented. "So you two can't use anything too magnificent or special?" They both shook their heads.

"Oh well, that's okay. Anyways, Astrid, can you tell us what you did to your sword? I don't know if you know this or not, but it is difficult to land a blow like what you did on a god or goddess like Arania. I mean, unless you're a god slayer or something."

Astrid gave Sakura a slightly confused look. "Well, I'm not a god slayer, but I didn't do much to my sword. All I did was engrave some of the more powerful fire runes on the blade and that's it."

Sakura looked surprised. "_You_ put those fire runes on it? Damn, we have a badass here!"

Natsu yawned as he stared at nothing. "Hey, stop overestimating her! In a fight, I could beat her like I was punching a fly or something."

Marcus threw in an abrupt comment. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Natsu. I can't even begin to count how many times Astrid has beaten me when we sparred. And I should mention that, while a fly is weak, it is annoyingly agile at the same time."

"Yeah? You're probably weaker than her anyways―"

"Hey!" Astrid interrupted, a stubborn look visible on her face. "Say that again and I'll be waltzing by your damn tombstone! Sakura, please continue."

Lucy whispered a quiet, "Jerk move, Natsu."

"Well, there's not much left to say until we can get more information," Sakura admitted. "So, conversation done!"

Immediately, Natsu jumped up from his seat in excitement. "Marcus! Fight me! And after I'm done with him, fight me, Astrid!" he yelled energetically. Everyone in the guild had heard Natsu's bold words and once more, paused what they were doing to hopefully catch a glimpse of the "event" that would soon occur.

* * *

A large crowd of both Fairy Tail members and random people gathered on the streets, surrounding Marcus and Natsu. As many people did not know Marcus' strength or even know who he was, a majority had placed their bets on the famed Natsu. The only ones voting on Marcus were Sakura and Astrid, with Matthew indecisive.

"Hey Sakura," Lucy said. Sakura looked at Lucy, signaling that she acknowledged her. "For Marcus, who's using a sword, Natsu will be wounded if he's hit with it, right?"

Sakura waved her hand in the air submissively. "Nah, if you noticed, Marcus has a different sword. I kind of threw him one designed for non-lethal dueling at the last minute."

"How does that even work?"

"I dunno, I never really saw it in action before. From what I've heard, the injuries suffered from dueling weapons like that will heal immediately after the battle is over. As a bonus, wounds caused by these types of dueling weapons will not bleed. And before you ask anymore questions, if Marcus uses his sword magic, the swords summoned will be under the same effect." Sakura and Lucy looked back to Marcus and Natsu, who were still glaring at each other.

Erza, who stood between the two, began counting down. "Three!" Marcus' hand gripped the hilt of his sword.

"Two!" Natsu's hands curled up into tight fists.

"One!" Some of the audience breathed heavily in excitement about what they were about to witness.

"Fight!"

Natsu stood in place for a bit, as if letting his opponent strike first. Marcus charged towards Natsu with an astounding speed and before Natsu could process what he saw, Marcus was already behind him. Free from any worry of injuring his opponent, Marcus unsheathed his sword and swung it at Natsu's back. Natsu staggered forward, Marcus not bothering to attack again.

"Is that really all you have?" Despite how the words were commonly used to mock someone, the tone Marcus said them in made it sound more like a question than a ridiculing sentence. As soon as he heard the words, Natsu's fist was engulfed in flames. He threw himself at Marcus.

"Do you really think such a weak attack could hurt me!?" Natsu yelled as he drew back his fist, preparing to deliver a blow. Suddenly, Marcus disappeared from his sight. A wound suddenly appeared on the side of his stomach, though no blood flowed from it. When Natsu turned his head to look behind him, he saw Marcus, swords quickly materializing in the air behind him.

"You're bit too predictable and slow, try not to gives clues to your opponent on your next move," Marcus advised, an unusually normal grin on his face. Deciding that Marcus was ready to strike him at any time, Natsu took in a deep breath of air. Taking advantage of the moment, Marcus launched the great amount of swords behind him, each and every single one directed towards Natsu. With no warning whatsoever, Natsu let out a large breath of fire. It extended and was able to reach Marcus, but could not put a stop to the blades shooting towards him.

The both of them collapsed onto the ground. The swords Marcus had summoned glowed a yellow light and disappeared. Despite how weakened they both seemed to be, they were able to stand up without any complications.

"Now, that's a bit better," said Marcus, smiling.

"I don't need your instructions, newcomer!" Natsu yelled, charging at him. Natsu threw what looked like a normal punch at Marcus. But before his fist came in contact with anything, a fire unexpectedly swallowed it. Marcus attempted to block the attack, raising his sword in a defensive position, but ultimately, he was too slow. Natsu struck his shoulder, sending him stumbling back.

Before Natsu could attack again, there was an explosion of light in front of him, preventing him from getting any closer to Marcus. "Did you forget?" he asked. "I use more than just sword magic."

Soon, a ring of light binded Natsu as Marcus recovered from the attack he suffered.

"Daaaaaaaaaamn," commented Sakura.

There was another flash of light near Natsu. It emanated a blinding luminescence, forcing everybody watching the fight to look away. Once they were sure it had disappeared, Natsu was collapsed on the streets, bruises littering his body. The onlookers gasped in surprise.

"And stop! I now declare Marcus," Erza announced, "as the victor!"

There was an awkward silence. Eventually, a still weak Natsu chirped in.

"Dammit!" Natsu whined, still lying on the ground as his wounds disappeared one by one. "This is like, the second time! First Sakura and now this newcomer!" The audience was shocked at the fight that they had witnessed. Their jaws hung wide open as they stared at Marcus and the defeated Natsu in silence. Breaking the quietude, a voice called, "Marcus!"

A certain brunette ran up to him and pulled him into a hug. "I was a bit worried for a second, but I knew you'd win in the end!" Marcus returned her embrace.

"Thanks, Astrid," he said. For whatever reason, there was then a brief pause between them before Astrid pulled away, revealing a deep blush on both Marcus and Astrid's faces alike. They could hear annoyed groaning coming from the audience as they saw the money they had bet dumped into another bucket.

Seeing this, Marcus spoke. "T―There really is no need for any money, you know. Simply fighting a strong opponent is satisfactory enough―" Interrupting him, Erza picked up the bucket and shoved it to him, forcing him to accept it. Natsu heard his stomach rumble with hunger as he stood up.

"Hey," he said weakly, "do you think that you could get us some lunch or something?"

Marcus happily replied, "Sure, no problem!"

Natsu then pointed at Astrid. "And don't forget about our fight!"

* * *

Sakura threw Astrid the same sword Marcus had used. "What's this for?" Astrid asked as she caught the weapon by both its blade and its hilt.

"Well," Sakura started, "we don't want you turning Natsu into minced meat because you're using your normal blade. As demonstrated when your lover was fighting Natsu, the wounds inflicted by it didn't bleed and healed once the battle was over. In short, a non-lethal blade meant just for dueling."

Astrid sighed, "That lover joke is getting old. Will you ever stop teasing me about Marcus?"

"Nope! In a way, we're helping out your relationship! Unless you're friendzoning him."

"No comment."

Leaving her steel sword for Sakura to hold onto, Astrid walked back within the crowd of people, placing the dueling sword at her side.

The random spectators that had come to watch the battle between Natsu and Astrid were mostly different. As Marcus and Astrid were still unheard of, many people still bet on Natsu. Though, the Fairy Tail members had bet on Astrid due to the battle involving Marcus. Matthew looked at his sister, who he saw bent down over something on the ground. "Watcha doing?" he suddenly asked, startling Sakura.

Turning her attention away from her object of interest, Sakura looked towards Matthew and replied. "Since we have to temporarily replace Astrid's weapon, I found it would be best to study her blade; especially the runes."

"Ah, clever thinking, Sister!" Matthew complimented, bending down to join Sakura on inspecting the fine steel. "Inferno runes, huh? Haven't seen too many of those around."

"That's because inferno runes are powerful. Duh. It takes a skilled runemaster a month at best to get them like this. The unexperienced would probably take more than half a year. Not to mention the amount of magic it takes for these to work properly. Oh, and have I touched on the cost of getting these engraved?"

Matthew was slighty taken aback. "How are they this powerful, yet so easy to read?"

Sakura gave him an unimpressed look. "Inferno runes are still mostly human magic. Some of the more powerful but not as intelligent or sophisticated gods bestowed these runes some of its power. At least, from what I've heard. Hey, I'm just a peasant in that plane of existence."

"I wonder how Astrid ever got the time to engrave these. I mean, with Marcus and all the things happening even before Maxwell messed things up, I doubt she ever got the time. And It's clear that she didn't get a runemaster for these."

Still looking closely at the runes, Sakura sighed. "I don't know anymore. Maybe she stumbled upon this sword one day? I just don't know. Sakura out."

Matthew suddenly took his attention off of the runes and looked at the materials the blade was made from. "No wait, what about the actual blade?"

As she was about to stand up, Sakura bent down over the sword again. "Steel. Obvious, isn't it?"

"The higher-quality stuff too. And most likely forged by a talented blacksmith."

"And?"

"Can't you feel it?" Sakura shot an annoyed look to her brother. "Feel what?" she asked.

"Duh! The magic coming from the blade alone; not just the runes!" Matthew stated. Sakura laid her hand on the blade. Not too long after, a look of realization appeared on her face.

"Oh... I thought it was just the tension between Natsu and Astrid," admitted Sakura as she glanced at the two. They were still standing idly, neither of them making a move as they looked towards Erza.

After a long waiting period, Erza finally counted down. "Three!"

As Marcus had, Astrid found herself grasping the hilt of the sword still lying in its sheath. "Two!"

Natsu cracked his knuckles as he appeared to be in deep thought. "One!"

They both stood so still that anyone could tell there was high tension between them.

"Fight!"

* * *

"Wh―What's happening to them?" asked a young girl worriedly, peering into musty cells as heavily armoured guards pushed her foward. One of the guards nudged her with his spear. "That is none of your concern, child."

Prisoners within the cells that weren't busy worrying about themselves looked at the girl with pity, and the girl could understand why; the conditions they were in were horrendous. Suddenly, another question came. "Where are you taking me? And what will you do with me?" But her questions remained unanswered as the guards simply forced her to walk faster.

In a room far from the cells, were menacing presences. A voice spoke. "Milord, I am sorry to say that a taboo was placed on this."

"Oh? What would that taboo be? assuming that I don't already know it?" another voice asked.

"The taboo for this kind of magic is that the user cannot possess one of their own kind. If I were to do that, I would end up fusing with that girl and being trapped with only her powers at my disposal. I do not bekieve you would want that. If we were to bring a human that claims they are willing to work woth us, they would most likely betray us in some form or another."

"I see. Place her in a cell and wait for those worms to come inching up for her. I believe we can take advantage of another human. One whose feelings caused her to commit terrible crimes."

* * *

"Lucy," said a blonde-haired woman. She sat at a table with a communication lacrima, the image of another blonde on the glass. "I recieved an oracle...about you."

"What does it have to do with me?" Lucy asked.

"Another chance you may have been given, but eventually, you will not end up wasting it; others will do so in your stead."

"What does that mean?" asked a confused Lucy, her eyebrow raised.

"I want you to make the most out of that chance. Make sure people don't destroy it. Nobody has escaped fate before, but please, if you can, please try to."


	17. Familiarization

**EDITED NOTES:**

Oh wait, I'm supposed to lessen the OC screentime and increase the canon character screen time, right? Why did I even bother making this a fanfiction again?

* * *

"Fight!"

Astrid stood idly as Natsu charged at her. Natsu drew back his fist as a large blaze engulfed it. People in the crowd surrounding the two pointed to Astrid and asked one another, "What is she doing?" As soon as Natsu was within a feet of Astrid, she quickly drew her sword from its scabbard, utilizing the simple motion as a method of attacking.

"I'm sure you've already heard it from Marcus, you know," Astrid stated with a somewhat bored tone. "Don't give your enemy hints of what your next move might be. It's like telling your enemy you're going to ambush them without expecting anything to happen when you do so." A wound suddenly opened on Natsu's stomach, though there was no bloodshed due to the weapon Astrid wielded.

Natsu almost immediately recovered from the shock, unlike when he fought Marcus, Natsu turned around and once again charged at his opponent. He curled one of his hands up into a fist and drew it back again as he threw himself at Astrid, "I still don't need advice from you new people!"

Astrid quickly guarded with her sword, expecting something similar to what Natsu did against Marcus. Natsu's fist was never surrounded by flames as it struck the blade of the sword. Instead, Natsu hastily threw another punch at Astrid. This time, a large blaze encompassed it. Astrid, who was not anticipating the second attack, could not guard and tried to dodge it as fast as she could. Even with this, Natsu was able to land a blow on her, though her attempted evasion saved her from the more severe possibilities.

Astrid held back a pained cry as she staggered back. Natsu grinned, "Heh, that's for talking down to me." Before he could make another move, Astrid raised her hands in front of her, her palms facing Natsu. Soon, a scarlet fire spun around him, slowly spiralling toward the sky. Natsu chuckled.

"Fire, huh?" He began to inhale the flames, but as soon as he did so, he coughed violently. As Natsu recuperated from the odd fire, he spoke under his breath. "Why can't I eat it? This isn't god magic..."

"What's this?" Sakura asked herself, staring wide-eyed at the scene.

The flames drew closer to Natsu and eventually, a bright flash of red blinded everybody looking at the scene for a brief second. When they were able to see again, every spectator immediately noticed Natsu collapsed on the ground again, covered in bruises that instantly began healing. Astrid sighed as she lowered her hands back down to her sides. Erza yelled, "Once again, Natsu has been defeated! The victor is Astrid!" There was silence as people looked at the beaten Natsu. Suddenly, a person appeared behind Astrid and pulled her into a hug.

"M―Marcus?" Mira asked as she attempted to get a look behind herself, a blush forming on her face. "Wh―What are you doing?"

Marcus simply smiled at her. "It's rare to ever see things like that from you, you know," he contemplated. "It kind of reminds me when we first met in that f―"

"D―Don't reveal such a dear memory in front of all these random people!"

The onlookers sighed as others had before, watching their money being gathered by Erza. Natsu sat up, coughing. He immediately turned to Marcus and Astrid. "Hey! Stop getting all lovey-dovey over there!" he yelled.

Astrid quickly broke free of Marcus' embrace and made a rash reply. "We are not! Marcus and I are merely friends!"

"So you _are_ friendzoning him?" a certain goddess interjected.

"I have no words for you!"

* * *

"So are you two gonna join the guild?" Natsu asked. "I mean, you did beat me. Anybody that can do that is automatically qualified according to me."

Marcus and Astrid. After thinking, Astrid sighed. "I'm sorry, Marcus and I are mercenaries. We're not looking for a permanent group," she said, her head lowered.

"But surely you will stay around for when we fight the gods, correct?" asked Sakura.

"Of course." Sakura put her hand out in front of her, palm facing the ceiling. A satchel containing many gold coins appeared in her hand. Marcus shook his head. "Though we may be mercenaries, we are not seeking pay this time around. As long as we are able to retrieve Priscilla, we will gladly help with any other needs involving the gods."

Sakura threw the money to him anyways. "Take it, I basically have unlimited money."

"Too bad," Natsu said, "but if you're going to stay around for all the action, you better get used to the guild."

"EVERYONE!" he yelled, interrupting everybody's activities. He pointed to the two, "These two aren't joining, but they're going to be hanging out here often, so welcome them!"

A crowd surrounded the two as if they were celebrities. Questions came from every direction. Sakura spoke to Natsu over the commotion. "Nice job almost getting us run over by the guild!" she yelled.

"Thanks!" Natsu shouted back, not catching the sarcasm. "Just like all the times I introduced new people!"

Eventually, a certain redhead walked towards the mercenaries. All of the people surrounding them immediately cleared a path for her.

"I thank you for beating up Natsu when you fought him! You have earned respect from I, Erza Scarlet," she said as she bowed. "All right then, continue, everyone."

The crowd was more calm than before Erza intervened. "Marcus! Astrid!" Wendy's voice said. "I saw your fights with Natsu, your magic is amazing!"

"I―It was nothing really―" Wendy interrupted Marcus' sentence. "I'm Wendy! It's great to have people like you assisting the guild! even if they're not joining!"

Sakura whispered to Matthew, "Jeez, she's talkative today." People continued to throw questions at them and then introduce themselves. Suddenly, Natsu yelled.

"Party!" he shouted, his fist raised in the air and a grin on his face. Glasses filled to the brim with beer clashed together as the guild was quickly sent into a ruckus.

"Uh..." Marcus said. "Do you guys always have parties for no reason? and is it always this chaotic when you do so?" he asked as he looked towards Natsu and Gray, who were struggling with each other.

Sakura smiled as she replied, "It isn't a Fairy Tail party without it!"

Wendy was unusually excited, as if she had quit idolizing Natsu and moved onto the mercenaries. "Oh!" Wendy said, the expression on her face made her look like she just remembered something. "One of you hugged the other when they won against Natsu. Is there any chance that you two have an affair you haven't told anyone about? I mean, you two have also been blushing around each other a lot!"

"This child...!" Astrid said, turning her back to Marcus. "She's your little sister all over again!"

"Don't be like that Astrid. She's right." Marcus then looked to Wendy, "We always deny it, but I suppose it's in development."

"Oh, shut up!"

Sakura, after snapping out of what seemed to be deep thoughts, spoke. "Astrid, I was thinking about your battle with Natsu earlier. I was just wondering...where did you learn that fire magic?"

Astrid almost hesitantly replied. "Someone named Felix..."

A surprised look appeared on Sakura's face. "The _god_ Felix?!"

Astrid shook her head. "It is highly unlikely that the Felix I met was a god. But anyways, he decided to take care of me. When he was doing so, he taught me fire magic." Marcus gave Astrid a worried look, as he knew she didn't like to talk about her childhood much.

"That does sound a lot like the dude I know, though. He was kind, right?" Once Astrid nodded, Sakura continued. "Well what a coincidence!" Matthew looked as if he was about to interject, but Sakura interrupted him.

"Woah woah, I've had enough strategy and theory talk today. Don't go spewing off anymore," she told him.

Matthew whined, "But Sister!"

"Who's the older one here?"

* * *

Matthew waited outside of Celeste's room, not able to bear seeing his mother in pain.

"Mother..." said Sakura, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please tell me there's something I can do! Like getting another god to help with this! Hell, if I have to, I'll get an older god to help you! Just please...tell me it's possible to cure this..."

"...Sakura..." Celeste said weakly. "The magic has only gotten worse. It is now beyond the power of any of the gods or goddesses. This may be my end, and I will just have to accept it." She placed a hand on Sakura's cheek, her thumb wiping the tears on Sakura's flushed face. "My dear, I wish to tell you something."

Sniffling, Sakura asked in a choked voice, "What is it?"

"I want to apologize to you once more about Maxwell... I wished for your absence and led you to flee. I wanted you, my only child before Maxwell, gone because I was so susceptible. I cannot ask you to ever forgive me, but just so that you may know that I still feel guilty."

"Mother," Sakura said.

"Please don't die on me!"

* * *

**EDITED NOTES:**

I sure do hope this isn't as cringy when I get done with my "simple edits".


	18. Malevolence: Vengeful Prisoner

**EDITED NOTES:**

*Stabbing the living daylights out of 2014, 2015, and early-to-mid 2016 Tana*

* * *

"Mother," Sakura said.

"Just please don't die on me!"

Just as Sakura had finished her sentence, Celeste's hand immediately dropped from her face. Sakura looked at her unmoving mother as she saw the glowing purple magic slowly fade away into nothingness. "Mother?" she asked in a choked voice.

"MOTHER!"

Matthew leaned against the wooden door of the room Sakura lamented in, a sombre look on his face. His hand reached for the brass knob by his side. He slowly turned it and opened the door a crack. Hesistantly, Matthew turned around to peek in, his hand still grasping the door knob. There he saw Sakura, her head buried in the mattress his mother was laying on and yelling muffled words and profanties. Celeste however, was unmoving. Her eyes were shut as a peaceful smile was visible on her face. His head lowered, Matthew walked to the main area of the guild: the very center of the first floor. The guild was silent as they listened to Sakura's faint outbursts.

"Matthew," he heard a worried voice say as soon as he stepped foot on the main interior. "How is your mother doing?" Matthew simply turned his head from the blue-haired dragon slayer to the ground. Taken aback, Wendy looked to the ground as well.

"I see...she died," she spoke after a short pause. "I'm sorry."

Natsu suddenly interjected. "Oi Matthew, why aren't you like, comforting Sakura?" Matthew reluctantly replied, his head still lowered.

"Well... Sister has a terrible temper. I think it's best to give her some time alone in order to avoid her wrath." Natsu nodded his head as if understanding―which was quite rare for him. They heard light footsteps that seemed to head towards the room Sakura lingered in. Matthew looked towards the source.

"Astrid? What are you doing?"

Stopping in her tracks and turning towards Matthew, Astrid responded in a calm tone. "I believe...I will be able to comfort her."

Wendy spoke up, "Astrid, even Matthew is unable to console her. How will you be able do it?"

Turning back towards the hallway she was nearing, Astrid could only tell everyone to have faith in her. As she drew closer to the source of the only ruckus, she sighed. Once she reached the door that Sakura was behind, she paused. Swallowing in nervousness, the mercenary grasped the door knob and slowly turned it, the sound muffled out by Sakura's cries. Slowly, she approaching the goddess, still unnoticed. Astrid kneeled down beside Sakura just when she had covered her face with her hands.

"Sakura," she said in a soothing voice.

Sakura then uncovered her face and turned towards the brunette woman. "What do you want?" Abruptly, Astrid pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I know how it feels to have a loving parent die. You know, my parents died too. I know it's painful at the moment, but I know you'll recover from it." Her stomach churning even more than it was before, Sakura accepted the welcoming action. She pressed her head against Astrid's chest as if she was a child. As she wept, Astrid closed her eyes and stroked Sakura's hair gently all while smiling. "I know you're strong," she continued, "and not just magically, but emotionally. If you ever need to say something about Celeste, I'm here for you. I believe I can help."

Sakura's tears gradually came to a stop and the knot in her throat slowly loosened. The door to the room opened slightly without the two knowing. Guild members hovered around it, everyone trying to see Sakura's reaction to Astrid. "I never knew she could do that..." whispered Marcus. "She was always able to comfort me, but I always think it's just because I've known her for a long―" he cut himself off as he heard Sakura speaking again.

"Thank you..." Sakura uttered. "Who knows what I would've done if you didn't do this for me?" After a short pause, Astrid slowly pulled away and stood up. She outstretched a hand to Sakura.

"If you don't mind, we should go and see the guild. I'm sure the chaos will be able to take your mind off of this whole situation." Sakura wiped her tears with the back of her hand. A smile appeared on her face as she held onto Astrid's hand and stood up. Fairy Tail then realized it was their cue to get into place before they opened the door. Members rushed to the center area of the guild's first floor, trying the best they could to not shout at each other because they were shoved aside. Once Astrid pushed open the door the guild once stood behind, she saw a certain dragon slayer standing beside a certain swordsman.

"Wendy?! Marcus?!" Astrid yelled in surprise. "Were you two watching us the whole time?!"

Marcus inhaled a sharp breath. "Only a little bit!" he admitted nervously, avoiding Astrid's gaze. "We only saw a little!"

"By the gods!"

Wendy began to slowly step away backwards, giving Marcus a pitiful look as Astrid continued to yell at him. "Sorry, but I'm leaving this to you, Marcus," she said in a slightly hushed and apologetic voice. Soon, Sakura followed even though the scene she was witnessing seemed mildly entertaining to her. As she shuffled past Marcus, she spoke a little.

"You should kiss her," Sakura whispered to him, a smirk on her face. Immediately, Astrid's face flushed an even deeper shade of red once she somehow heard Sakura's words. Noticing this, Sakura and Wendy ran off. The mercenaries looked at the two who were dashing away from them, their eyebrows raised.

Eventually, Astrid looked back to Marcus, a faint blush still on her face. "I'm getting out of this narrow hallway," she simply said. "And...make sure you don't get any ideas from whatever Sakura says to you."

* * *

"No more waiting..." a girl whispered to herself. She kneeled on chipped grey concrete, thick steel bars behind her. Her clothes were ragged and her skin was covered in dirt and bruises. The girl's hair was short, messy, and uneven, yet her bangs hid her eyes. Her face was buried in her hands. "Vengeance is the only way," she continued.

Her eyes then widened. "But how...?" Suddenly, a flash of purple exploded by the girl's cell. Guards that were patrolling the area were thrown back, landing on the floor or against a wall. The sound of metal clashing with the floor resounded. Thick grey smoke was everywhere except the girl and the cell. The metal bars were completely torn off as a hand outstretched from the shadows.

"Come to me," a menacing voice spoke, dripping with a malicious venom. "If revenge is what you seek, allow me to guide you towards it."

The girl uncovered her face and turned, looking at the mysterious hand with confused eyes. Reluctantly taking the hand, the girl saw a silhouette resembling a man, a smirk plastered on his face. Another momentary flash of purple and the girl was gone.

* * *

**EDITED NOTES:**

Lucy doesn't talk at all in this chapter. And she's a main character.

*Facepalm*

Oh well, I'm not editing that stuff just yet.


End file.
